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BANQUET 


TO 


MARSHALL   PINCKNEY  WILDER, 


September   22,   1883. 


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BANQUET 


TO 


MARSHALL     PINCKNEY    WILDER, 

September  22,  1883- 


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PROCEEDINGS 

AT  A 

BANQUET   GIVEN    BY   HIS    FRIENDS 

TO  THE 

Hon.  MARSHALL  PINCKNEY  WILDER,  Ph.D. 

On  his  Birthday,  September  22,  1883, 


TO   COMMEMORATE  THE 


COMPLETION   OF   HIS   EIGHTY-FIFTH   YEAR. 


Serus  in  coelum  redeas,  diuque 
Latus  intersis  populo. 


Horace:    Lib.  I.  Car.  2. 


CAMBRIDGE: 

UNIVERSITY     PRESS. 

1883. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


Page 
Portrait  of  the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  on  steel,  Frontispiece 
Introduction  to  the   Banquet  to  the  Hon.  Marshall  P. 

Wilder 7 

Prayer  by  the  Rev.  George  W.  Blagden,  D.D 9 

Address  by  the  Hon.  Charles  H.  B.  Breck,  Chairman  .     .  11 

Response  of  the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder 13 

Address  of  His  Honor  Oliver  Aimes 17 

Address  of  the  Hon.  John  E.  Russell 18 

Congratulations  of  the  Boston  Club  by  John  L.  Steven- 
son, Esq 21 

Response  of  Colonel  Wilder 21 

Address  of  His  Honor  Albert  Palmer,  Mayor  of  Boston,  23 

Address  of  President  J.  C.  Greenough 25 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Rice 28 

Address  of  Gen.  Joshua  L.  Chamberlain 31 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Frederick  Smyth 35 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Nathaniel  P.  Banks 37 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Leverett  Saltonstall 43 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Francis  B.  Hayes 45 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Daniel  Needham -49 

Address  of  the  Rev.  Edward  N.  Packard 50 

Address  of  the  Rev.  Edmund  F.  Slafter 53 

Address  of  Major  Ben:  Perley  Poore 61 

Address  of  Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker 66 


VI  TABLE   OF    CONTENTS. 

Page 

Address  of  M.  Denman  Ross,  Esq 69 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Edward  S.  Tobey 73 

Address  of  Aaron  H.  Bean,  Esq 76 

Address  of  Benjamin  F.  Stevens,  Esq 78 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Charles  R.  Train 80 

Address  of  William  D.  Coolidge,  Esq 83 

Address  of  the  Hon.  Charles  L.  Flint 85 

Lines  from  Robert  Burns's  Song  of  Auld  Lang  Syne      .  89 


Letter  of  Invitation  by  the  Committee 91 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop 92 

Letter  of  His  Excellency  Benjamin  F.  Butler.     ...  93 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  George  B.  Loring 94 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  Willlui  Claflin 98 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  John  D.  Long 99 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  Thomas  Talbot 100 

Letter  of  Dr.  Oliver  Wendeix  Holmes loi 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  Martin  P.  Kennard 10 1 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  Francis  W.  Bird 103 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  Charles  Levi  Woodbury      ....  105 

Letter  of  the  Hon.  Frederic  W.  Lincoln 107 

Letter  of  the  Rev.  James  H.  Means,  D.D 107 

Letter  of  Mr.  C.  M.  Atkinson 108 


Names  of  the  Gentlemen  who  participated  in  the   Ban- 
quet         no 

Menu 116 


BANQUET 


TO  THE 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.   WILDER. 


On  the  twenty-second  day  of  September,  1883,  the 
Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder  completed  the  eighty- 
fifth  year  of  his  age.  A  short  time  previous,  a  few 
of  his  friends,  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Hor- 
ticultural Society,  desiring  to  testify  their  apprecia- 
tion of  his  services  to  that  association,  and  to  other 
institutions  with  which  he  had  been  connected,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  tendering  to  him  a  banquet  to 
commemorate  his  birthday.  A  Committee,  consist- 
ing of  Messrs.  Charles  H.  B.  Breck,  Robert 
Manning,  and  John  C.  Hovey  sent  out  invitations 
to  the  personal  friends  of  Mr.  Wilder,  belonging  to 
the  various  institutions  in  which  he  is  interested, 
to  join  them  in  tendering  to  him  the  honor  of  a 
dinner  at  the  Parker  House,  in  Boston.  The  idea, 
so    appropriately   conceived,    was    admirably  carried 


8  BANQUET   TO   THE 

out.  More  than  a  hundred  gentlemen  were  present 
on  the  occasion,  most  of  whom  had  occupied  high 
positions  in  the  State  and  Nation,  and  in  the  walks 
of  learning  and  letters. 

The  dining-hall,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Joseph 
H.  Beckman,  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  Parker 
House,  was  fitly  ornamented  with  the  richest  trophies 
of  the  flower-garden,  arranged  with  exquisite  taste. 
These  decorations  of  floral  beauty,  filling  twenty 
magnificent  baskets,  gifts  from  Messrs.  H.  H.  Hun- 
newell,  Francis  B.  Hayes,  John  L.  Gardner,  the 
Messrs.  Hovey  and  Company,  and  Mrs.  E.  S.  Joyce, 
were  the  delight  and  admiration  of  the  party.  Mrs. 
Joyce,  of  Medford,  contributed  also  a  bouquet  of 
exquisite  and  crowning  beauty.  At  the  upper  end 
of  the  hall  were  two  fine  specimens  of  the  Victoria 
Regia,  and  other  lilies,  presented  by  E.  S.  Sturde- 
vant,  of  New  Jersey.  Most  agreeable  music  was 
discoursed  by  the  Germania  Band.  On  the  cover  of 
the  Menu  was  a  splendid  life-like  portrait  of  Colonel 
Wilder,  and  by  the  side  of  each  plate  was  placed  a 
Grace-Wilder  carnation  pink,  relieved  by  maiden-hair 
fern,  making  an  exquisite  boutonniere.  This  carna- 
tion is  a  seedling  raised  by  Mr.  Joseph  Tailby,  of 
Wellesley,  and  was  named  by  him  for  a  daughter 
of  Colonel  Wilder,  in  honor  of  her  father. 

Mr.  Charles  H.  B.  Breck,  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee,  presided.      The    Hon.    Francis    M.    Weld, 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER. 


9 


Vice-President  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
Club,  occupied  the  head  of  one  of  the  tables,  and 
Benjamin  G.  Smith,  Esq.,  Vice-President  of  the 
Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  presided  at 
the  other.  Colonel  Wilder,  whose  entrance  was 
greeted  with  prolonged  applause,  occupied  the  seat 
of  honor. 


The  venerable  George  W.  Blagden,  D.D.,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  President,  invoked  a  blessing  in  the  following 
words :  — 

Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  we  worship 
Thee  as  the  God  of  whom  it  is  declared  in  Thy 
Word  that  "  There  is  one  Lawgiver."  Thou  hast 
ordained,  and  dost  continually  uphold  in  their  oper- 
ation, those  laws  of  nature  and  of  providence  in  the 
workings  of  which,  as  we  obey  and  use  them.  Thou 
givest  us,  day  by  day,  our  daily  bread.  Thou  hast 
thus  left  not  Thyself  without  a  witness,  in  "that  Thou 
hast  done  good,  and  given  us  rain  from  heaven,  and 
fruitful  seasons,  filling  our  hearts  with  food  and  glad- 
ness." And  Thou  hast  assured  us  that  every  creature 
of  Thine  is  good,  and  nothing  to  be  refused  if  it  be 
received  with  thanksgiving,  and  is  sanctified  by  Thy 
word,  and  by  prayer.  Help  us,  now,  to  receive  Thy 
gifts  before  us  with  thanksgiving,  and  to  sanctify  them 
by  Thy  word  and  by  prayer. 


lO  BANQUET   TO    THE 

May  Thy  servant,  whose  birthday  and  ripened  age 
we  now  commemorate,  and  who,  in  studying  and 
obeying  Thy  natural  and  providential  laws,  has  been 
so  extensively  Thine  instrument  in  filling  the  hearts 
of  his  fellow-men  with  food  and  gladness,  be  also, 
through  Thy  grace,  so  obedient  to  Thine  eternal  law 
of  love,  in  the  penitence,  faith,  and  obedience  of 
Thy  gospel,  as  to  "  have  fruit  unto  holiness,  and 
the  end  thereof  be  everlasting  life "  to  his  soul, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  to  whom  be  glory 
forever.     Amen. 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  n 


At  the  conclusion  of  the  dinner,  the  President,  the  Hon. 
Mr.  Breck,  spoke  as  follows :  — 

Gentlemen,  —  The  occasion  which  brings  us  to- 
gether this  evening  is  of  great  interest  to  us  all.  We 
come  here  to  offer  our  congratulations  to,  and  to 
express  the  sentiments  of  love  and  admiration  which 
we  feel  for,  the  oldest  merchant  of  the  city  of  Boston, 
on  this  the  eighty-fifth  anniversary  of  his  birth.  For 
more  than  fifty  years  he  has  been  a  director  in  the 
Hamilton  Bank,  and  for  forty  years  a  director  in 
the  New  England  Life  Insurance  Company.  He  is 
the  father  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College 
and  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture.  He  was  the 
founder  and  President  of  the  United  States  Agricul- 
tural Society.  His  influence  has  been  felt  through- 
out the  country.  For  a  third  of  a  century  he  has 
held  the  important  office  of  President  of  the  American 
Pomological  Society,  whose  members  are  found  in 
every  State  of  the  Union,  and  also  in  the  Dominion 
of  Canada.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology,  was  for  many  years 
a  vice-president,  and  the  chairman  of  its  Society  of 
Arts.  From  its  organization  he  has  been  a  director. 
He  is  President  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
Club,  now  in  the  forty-fourth  year  of  its  existence.   For 


12  BANQUET   TO   THE 

twenty  years  he  was  President  of  the  Norfolk  County 
Agricultural  Society,  and  for  eight  years  President  of 
the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society.  For  sixteen 
years  he  has  been  President  of  the  New  England  His- 
toric Genealogical  Society.  He  has  also  been  active 
in  founding  and  in  aiding  other  societies.  He  is  the 
oldest  living  ex-president  of  the  Massachusetts  Sen- 
ate, and  also  the  oldest  ex-commander  of  the  Ancient 
and  Honorable  Artillery  Company.  But  I  will  not 
continue  to  enumerate  the  many  important  positions 
of  trust  which  he  has  held  with  honor  to  himself  and 
benefit  to  his  countrymen.  I  give  you  as  my  senti- 
ment. The   HEALTH,  PROLONGED    LIFE,  AND    CONTINUED 

usefulness  of  our  welcome  guest,  the  hon. 
Marshall  Pinckney  Wilder. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  13 


Colonel  Wilder  responded  in  a  clear  and  distinct  voice, 
as  follows :  — 

My  Friends,  —  Language  is  too  feeble  to  express 
the  gratitude  I  feel  for  the  generous  ovation  with 
which  you  are  crowning  the  anniversary  of  my  birth. 
Mr.  President,  could  I  believe  that  I  was  worthy  of 
the  praise  which  you  have  so  kindly  bestowed  upon 
me,  I  should  feel  that  my  mission  on  earth  was 
nearly  ended,  and  that  I  was  about  ready  to  be 
gathered  to  my  fathers,  like  a  shock  of  corn  fully 
ripe  in  its  season.  But  no,  no ;  although  I  am  some- 
what advanced  in  years,  I  do  not  feel  that  my  work 
is  done.  Before  I  go  home,  I  have  something  more 
to  do  for  those  great  interests  to  which  I  have  given 
so  much  of  my  life.  You  have  spoken  of  my  con- 
nection with  various  institutions  and  callings,  and  I 
thank  you  for  remembering  me  as  an  old  merchant 
of  Boston,  for  it  is  from  this  vocation  that  I  have  de- 
rived the  means  to  aid  these  other  interests.  Yes,  I 
am  an  old  merchant ;  I  have  been  constantly  in  busi- 
ness for  nearly  threescore  years  in  this  city,  and  I 
beg  to  assure  you,  my  friends,  that  there  is  no  title 
which  I  prize  more  highly  than  that  of  an  upright, 
intelligent,  and  enterprising  merchant  of  Boston. 


14  BANQUET   TO    THE 

It  is  our  good  fortune,  my  friends,  to  live  in  an 
age  of  remarkable  progress  and  activity ;  in  a  na- 
tion whose  growth,  prosperity,  and  power  are  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  the  world.  Much  of  this 
progress  I  have  witnessed  in  my  own  day.  At  the 
time  of  my  birth  the  population  of  this  nation  was 
only  about  five  millions ;  now  it  is  more  than  fifty 
millions.  When  I  came  to  this  city  there  was  not 
a  mile  of  railroad  on  this  continent ;  now  there  are 
120,000  miles.  And  let  us  never  forget  that  it  was 
by  the  bold  enterprise  of  one  of  our  own  citizens  that 
the  first  great  railroad  was  opened  across  it  to  the 
Pacific  shores.  All  honor  to  the  memory  of  Oakes 
Ames  and  to  his  worthy  associates !  And  let  us 
also  remember  how  much  we  are  indebted  to  Ben- 
jamin P.  Cheney  and  his  associates  for  the  com- 
pletion of  that  great  northern  road,  opening  another 
thoroughfare  for  Europe  and  Asia,  and  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  immense  resources  of  the  great 
Northwest  of  America. 

Mr.  President,  you  have  referred  to  me  in  con- 
nection with  those  industrial  interests  on  which 
depend,  more  than  on  any  other,  the  prosperity 
and  happiness  of  the  world.  It  is  true  I  have 
done  something  for  these,  believing  that  I  could  do 
nothing  better  for  my  fellow-men.  At  the  time  of 
my  birth  there  were  not  half  a  dozen  agricultural 
societies,  and  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  after- 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  15 

ward  not  a  single  horticultural  society,  in  our  land  ; 
now  there  are  more  than  fifteen  hundred  of  these 
and  similar  associations  recorded  in  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  at  Washington.  Then  the  products 
of  our  soil  were  not  deemed  worthy  of  a  place  in  the 
statistics  of  our  nation ;  now  we  produce  more  than 
two  billions  of  bushels  of  grain,  with  a  constant  re- 
serve sufficient  to  supply  the  deficiency  of  the  Old 
World.  When  I  came  to  this  city  no  steamship  had 
ever  reached  our  shores;  now  there  is  not  a  day  in 
the  year  when  many  of  them  do  not  enter  or  depart 
from  our  ports.  But  I  need  not  prolong  this  strain 
of  remark.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  in  science,  art,  and 
civilization,  and  in  everything  that  pertains  to  the 
comfort  and  happiness  of  mankind,  the  present  age 
is  transcendently  superior  to  any  that  has  preceded  it. 
When  I  review  the  past  history  of  our  country  and 
look  forward  to  its  future  greatness  and  glory,  my  soul 
yearns  for  another  fourscore  and  five  years,  that  I 
may  see  its  two  hundred  millions  of  happy  freemen 
rejoicing  in  the  blessings  of  liberty,  peace,  and  union, 
all  united  in  one  great  circle  of  life  and  love ;  one 
in  interest,  one  in  destiny,  one  in  a  glorious  union, 
never  to  be  broken,  — 

"  The  union  of  lakes,  the  union  of  lands, 
The  union  of  States  none  can  sever ; 
The  union  of  hearts,  the  union  of  hands. 
And  the  Flacr  of  our  Union  forever  !  " 


1 6  BANQUET   TO   THE 

And  now,  my  friends,  in  closing  these  remarks, 
permit  me  again  to  say,  I  thank  you  from  the  bottom 
of  my  heart  for  this  kind  demonstration  of  your 
friendship  and  regard.  May  the  choicest  of  Heaven's 
blessings  descend  and  rest  on  you  through  life ;  and 
when  we  shall  have  passed  over  to  that  better  land 
not  far  away,  if  any  of  you  shall  come  where  I  am, 
you  will  be  received  with  open  arms  and  a  thankful 
heart,  as  a  token  of  my  appreciation  of  the  honor 
conferred  on  me  to-day. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  1 7 


The  Chairman  then  called  upon  the  Hon.  Oliver  Ames, 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Massachusetts,  who  spoke  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Mr.  President,  —  On  a  spring  morning,  about 
thirty-five  years  ago,  my  grandfather  said  to  me  :  "  I 
wish  you  to  take  the  express-wagon  and  drive  to 
Dorchester  to  get  a  lot  of  pear-trees."  He  also  said 
that  his  trees  did  not  grow  such  pears  as  he  found  in 
Boston ;  that  he  wanted  the  best,  and  the  place  to  get 
the  best  was  at  Marshall  P.  Wilder's.  I  started  on 
my  journey  with  a  letter  of  instructions,  and  when  I 
reached  Dorchester  I  presented  it  to  Colonel  Wilder. 
This  was  the  first  time  I  ever  met  our  honored  guest. 
Although  I  was  a  mere  boy,  he  showed  me  great 
attention  and  kindness.  He  was  then,  as  now  and 
always,  the  same  courteous,  affable,  and  considerate 
gentleman.  I  got  the  pear-trees,  and  they  have 
.proved,  all  these  years,  the  soundness  of  my  grand- 
fathers assertion,  that  Marshall  P.  Wilder's  pear- 
trees  were  the  best.  From  that  day  to  this,  I  have 
always  had  the  greatest  respect  for  our  honored 
guest,  and  I  know  that  both  my  father  and  my  grand- 
father held  him  in  the  highest  esteem.  In  fact,  it 
was  almost  an  article  in  our  family  creed,  to  honor, 
respect,  and  revere  Marshall  P.  Wilder. 


1 8  BANQUET   TO   THE 


The  Hon,  John  E.  Russell,  Secretary  of  the  State  Board 
of  Agriculture,  was  called  upon  to  respond  for  that  institu- 
tion, and  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  An  occasion 
like  this  cannot  be  complete  without  reference  to 
the  active  part  taken  by  Mr.  Wilder  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture. 

Like  the  comprehensive  scheme  for  agricultural 
education  that  resulted  in  the  State  College,  the  plan 
of  the  State  Board  was  formed  at  the  instance  of  Mr. 
Wilder.  It  was  voted  at  a  meetins:  of  the  Trustees 
of  the  Norfolk  Society,  held  Jan.  28,  1851,  "That 
the  President  and  Secretary  be  a  Committee  to 
mature  and  adopt  a  plan  for  a  convention  of  dele- 
gates from  the  various  Agricultural  Societies  of 
the  Commonwealth,  to  be  holden  at  some  conve- 
nient time  and  place ;  the  object  of  which  shall  be 
to  concert  measures  for  their  mutual  advantage,  and 
for  the  promotion  of  the  cause  of  Agricultural 
Education." 

In  accordance  with  this  vote  a  convention  of  dele- 
gates was  held  at  the  State  House  on  the  20th  of 
March,  185 1,  of  which  Mr.  Wilder  was  made  presi- 
dent ;  among  the  vice-presidents  was  the  venerable 
Ex-Governor  Lincoln,  of  Worcester.    This  important 


HON.    MARSHALL    P.    WILDER.  19 

convention  became  a  permanent  body,  under  the 
name  of  the  Central  Board  of  Agriculture. 

In  the  following  year  this  Board  addressed  a  peti- 
tion to  the  Legislature,  asking  for  the  formation  of 
a  Department  of  Agriculture,  with  offices  commen- 
surate with  the  importance  of  the  duties  to  be  dis- 
charged. This  petition  led  to  the  establishment  of 
the  present  Board  of  Agriculture. 

It  was  fortunate  for  the  new  Board  that  it  found 
at  the  outset  a  young,  earnest,  and  competent  secre- 
tary in  the  Hon.  Charles  L.  Flint,  now  here  by  my 
side,  who  performed  his  important  duties  with  a 
zeal  and  fidelity  that  made  our  Board  respected  in 
every  part  of  the  civilized  world.  Laws  promoting 
our  interests  were  proposed  and  carried  through  the 
Legislature,  farmers'  clubs  were  encouraged,  important 
experiments  were  undertaken,  and  pleuro-pneumonia 
was  extirpated  from  our  herds. 

From  the  beginning,  the  Board  has  had  the  advan- 
tage of  Mr.  Wilder's  earnest  leadership,  wide  agricul- 
tural knowledge,  and  sound  judgment.  Neither  age, 
inclemency  of  weather,  nor  pressing  occupations 
have  kept  him  from  participation  in  its  meetings. 
To  him  the  agriculture  of  the  Commonwealth  owes 
a  debt  that  can  never  be  paid  ;  the  records  of  our 
Board  are  a  monument  of  his  good  works  more 
enduring  than  brass.  And,  Sir,  in  view  of  his 
venerable  years,  so  lightly  borne,  his  interest  in  all 


20  BANQUET   TO   THE 

the  active  affairs  of  men,  and  his  continued  powers 
of  social  enjoyment,  I  may  well  repeat  the  wish  of 
the  poet  Horace,  expressed  in  one  of  his  invoca- 
tions to  the  Emperor  Augustus,  —  Serus  in  caelum 
redeas. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  21 


The  Boston  Club,  consisting  of  about  twenty  members, 
entered  the  dining-hall,  and,  through  their  President,  John 
L.  Stevenson,  Esq.,  presented  tlie  congratulations  of  the 
Club  to  Colonel  Wilder  in  the  following  words  :  — 

The  members  of  the  Boston  Club,  dining  in  an 
adjacent  room,  could  not  permit  this  rare  occasion 
to  pass  without  calling  in  a  body  to  testify  by  their 
presence  their  appreciation  of  the  noble  qualities  of 
head  and  heart,  which  have  so  long  added  lustre  to 
your  honored  name. 

Accept,  dear  Sir,  our  sincere  congratulations  that 
at  the  age  of  fourscore  years  and  five,  in  good  health 
and  vigor,  you  sit  at  this  festal  board,  surrounded 
by  honored  and  honoring  friends,  who  have  gathered 
here  to  felicitate  you  on  this  your  natal  day. 

And  that  your  silvered  head  may  gladden  our 
sight,  while  the  golden  love  of  your  heart  finds  ex- 
pression in  the  eloquent  words  of  your  lips  on  many 
happy  returns  of  this  delightful  occasion,  is  our  heart- 
felt wish. 

Colonel  Wilder  responded  as  follows  :  — 

Gentlemen,  —  You  take  me  by  surprise;  but  I 
assure  you  that  I  am  most  grateful  for  this  mark  of 
respect  and  desire  for  my  future  happiness.     Your 


22  BANQUET   TO   THE 

Association  is  engaged  in  the  worthy  object  of  pro- 
moting the  commerce,  industry,  and  wealth  of  our 
city.  Your  fealty  to  the  cause  is  aptly  shown  by 
your  weekly  patronage  of  the  Parker-House  larder, 
whereby  you  most  faithfully  exhibit  not  only  your 
loyalty  and  enterprise  in  the  promotion  of  these  in- 
terests, but  your  capacity  and  ability  to  consume 
and  carry  off  in  sobriety  the  good  things  set  before 
you. 

The    Club    retired,    each    of    them    taking   the   hand    of 
Colonel  Wilder  as  they  left  the  room. 


HON.    MARSHALL    P.    WILDER.  23 


His  Honor,  Albert  Palmer,  Mayor  of  the  city  of  Boston, 
was  called  upon,  and  responded  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  Great  deeds 
and  memorable  events  have  always  been  considered 
worthy  of  celebration.  Their  commemoration  by 
public  fete  and  festival  marks  the  virtue  of  the  race 
and  promotes  it.  But  a  great  and  good  life  is  the 
greatest  deed  and  the  best  event  that  ever  finds  a 
record  on  this  planet.  The  earth  itself  has  no  reason 
for  existence  except  to  perfect  the  race  and  produce 
the  noblest  types  of  manhood.  We  do  a  fitting 
thing,  then,  to  honor  a  noble  life  approaching  its 
completion ;  to  gaze  with  love  and  reverence  upon 
the  full-orbed  sun  before  it  touches  the  western 
horizon. 

Gentlemen,  the  life  of  Marshall  P.  Wilder  has 
fulfilled  every  demand  of  success  and  honor.  On 
many  and  various  fields  of  high  endeavor  he  has 
demonstrated  the  power  and  virtue  of  a  great  man. 
In  private  business  he  has  made  fortunes  honorably 
and  honestly,  and  he  has  generously  and  wisely  used 
them  in  works  and  plans  of  public  beneficence  and 
private  charity.  A  merchant  of  highest  repute  and 
largest  enterprise,  he  has  a  yet  broader  and  more 
enviable  fame  among  the  farmers  of  New  England, 


24  BANQUET   TO    THE 

for  he  has  done  more  to  promote  and  dignify  their 
occupation  than  any  other  man  in  America.  In 
horticulture,  the  belles-lettres  of  farming,  he  has 
wrought  miracles,  and  made  it  possible  for  every 
home  to  have  its  Eden.  He  has  shown  that  man 
may  still  walk  with  God  in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of 
the  day.  Time  would  fail  me  to  recount  his  great 
and  honorable  services  to  society  and  the  State.  It 
must  suffice  to  say  that  no  name  of  this  century 
is  written  more  imperishably  in  the  affection  and 
esteem  of  Boston  and  Massachusetts  than  the  name 
of  him,  our  honored  guest,  whose  birthday  we  greet 
and  bless  to-night.  With  upright  form,  with  clear 
vision  and  unclouded  intellect,  he  still  stands  before 
us  and  walks  among  us,  as  wise  as  ever,  as  eloquent 
as  ever,  and  so  good  that  there  is  no  need  of  his 
ever  growing  better ;  and  our  prayer  is  that  he  may 
return  late  to  the  heavens,  but  that  when  he  must 
ascend,  his  mantle  may  fall  upon  us. 


HON.    MARSHALL    P.    WILDER.  25 


Professor  J.  C.  Greenougii,  President  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Agricultural  College,  was  called  upon,  and  spoke  as 
follows :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  It  is  a  pleasure 
to  be  here  to-day,  and  to  be  permitted,  as  representa- 
tive of  the  State  College,  to  render  a  brief  tribute  to 
the  value  of  the  public  services  of  our  honored  friend. 
To  say  that  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College 
owes  its  existence  to  him,  would  be  but  a  very  inade- 
quate statement  of  what  Colonel  Wilder  has  done 
for  the  Commonwealth  and  for  our  whole  country. 

The  power  and  the  value  of  his  efforts  are  best 
estimated  by  considering  the  change  wrought  in  pub- 
lic opinion.  Most  of  us  remember  that  in  our  boy- 
hood the  opinion  was  almost  universal,  that  a  farmer 
needed  little,  if  any,  education  beyond  the  ability  to 
read,  to  write,  and  to  perform  the  simpler  operations 
in  numbers.  The  value  to  the  artisan  of  scientific 
knowledge  and  intellectual  culture  was  not  appre- 
ciated. 

Though  involved  in  the  toil  and  the  care  insepara- 
ble from  his  mercantile  career.  Colonel  Wilder,  in  the 
might  of  his  manhood,  with  all  his  culture,  his  en- 
thusiasm, and  his  force  of  character,  gave  himself 
to  the  great  work  of  helping  those  who  co-operate 


26  BANQUET   TO    THE 

with  Nature  in  the  ministries  of  the  garden  and  the 
field. 

It  has  so  passed  into  history,  that  no  one  of  us 
to-day  need  fail  to  present  to  himself  that  memorable 
occasion  in  1849,  when  Colonel  Wilder  addressed 
the  Norfolk  Agricultural  Society  upon  the  value 
of  education  to  those  engaged  in  productive  indus- 
tries, and  urged  the  establishment  of  an  agricultural 
school  or  college. 

In  that  audience  were  gathered  the  representative 
men  of  New  England.  The  address  secured  the  pro- 
found attention  and  won  the  cordial  approval  of  Levi 
Lincoln,  Josiah  Ouincy,  president  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, Horace  Mann,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Robert 
C.  Winthrop,  Edward  Everett,  Daniel  Webster,  and 
others  whom  history  will  join  with  these.  Nor  did 
the  eloquent  arguments  of  that  address  rest  with  the 
auditors ;  thousands  of  copies  were  published,  and 
found  their  way  to  the  firesides  of  thoughtful  readers 
in  every  part  of  our  land. 

The  intense  efforts  which  followed,  when,  as  leader 
in  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts,  Colonel  W^ilder  se- 
cured the  passage  of  a  bill  providing  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  agricultural  school  or  college,  only 
to  meet  with  defeat  in  the  House ;  his  undaunted 
energy  in  organizing  for  ultimate  victory  in  the 
midst  of  defeat ;  the  many  and  varied  forms  of  his 
efforts    until   the   college  was   established :    all   this 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  27 

we  would,  if  time  permitted,  gladly  recount,  not  only 
to  render  just  meed  of  praise  to  him  in  whose  honor 
we  have  assembled,  but  to  reinforce  our  own  wearied 
virtue  in  our  toils  for  the  public  good.  With  in- 
creasing years.  Colonel  Wilder's  zeal  for  the  college 
has  never  waned.  He  has  ever  been  a  leading  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  Trustees;  he  has  transferred 
from  his  own  grounds  to  those  of  the  college  some 
of  his  choicest  plants;  he  has  gracefully  preserved 
the  early  history  of  the  college  in  his  address,  de- 
livered on  the  occasion  of  the  graduation  of  the  first 
class ;  and  in  many  other  ways  he  has  so  cared  for 
the  interests  of  the  college,  that  he  is  justly  regarded  ^' 
as  its  founder  and  peerless  supporter. 

The  line  of  buildings  which  to-day,  at  Amherst 
graces  one  of  the  fairest  landscapes  in  New  England, 
and  the  sound  and  practical  education  which  they 
were  built  to  secure,  are  to  be  a  lasting  monu- 
ment to  his  foresight,  his  patriotism,  and  his  eloquent 
persuasion. 


28  BANQUET   TO   THE 


The  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Rice,  Ex-Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, spoke  in  behalf  of  the  merchants  of  Boston  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  I  esteem  it  a 
great  privilege,  as  well  as  a  great  pleasure,  to  come 
here  this  evening  and  participate  in  these  well-earned 
honors  to  our  venerable  and  esteemed  fellow-citizen. 
He  stands  alone  in  years  and  in  vigorous  activity 
united ;  and  thus  the  tribute  to  him  must  be  distinc- 
tive, personal,  and  emphatic.  In  the  address  from 
him  to  which  we  have  just  listened,  so  full  of  wonder- 
ful reminiscence,  so  full  of  moving  pathos,  he  has  told 
us  that  he  is  the  oldest  living  merchant,  bank  direc- 
tor, and  underwriter  now  in  active  service  in  Boston ; 
that  he  looks  back  to  the  days  when  the  trade  of  the 
city,  though  large  for  the  time,  was  but  the  beginning 
of  the  vast  bulk  represented  in  the  mercantile  trans- 
actions of  modern  times.  He  has  told  us,  too,  that 
his  participation  in  affairs  antedates  the  building 
of  steamboats,  railroads,  and  other  rapid  means  of 
communication,  and  runs  back  to  the  simplicity 
of  a  period  immediately  succeeding  the  colonial 
davs,  and  before  the  forces  of  Nature  had  been  so 
largely  harnessed   into  the  service   of   men. 

That  was  an  interesting  year  in  which  to  have  been 
born,  whose  eighty-fifth  anniversary  we  are  now  cele- 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  29 

brating.  Washington  and  many  of  his  contempora- 
ries were  still  alive,  and  all  the  social  and  political  ele- 
vation which  his  great  services  and  illustrious  example 
had  inspired  were  resplendent  in  their  noonday  glory. 
Franklin,  the  great  mechanic  and  practical  philoso- 
pher, had  lately  died,  and  the  maxims  of  prudence 
which  he  had  supplemented  with  a  flood  of  wisdom 
in  all  branches  of  public  economy  were  diffusing 
their  influence  throughout  the  country.  Not  only 
was  there  no  steamboat  and  no  railroad,  as  our  hon- 
ored guest  has  said,  but  the  steam-engine  was  but 
little  known,  and  Franklin  and  the  scientists  had 
gone  no  further  with  electricity  than  to  show  that 
it  and  lightning  were  the  same.  Boston  was  even 
then  a  well-known  commercial  town,  the  most  famous 
on  this  continent.  As  the  phrase  goes,  "  her  com- 
merce whitened  every  sea  "  in  reality ;  and  the  long 
voyages  beyond  the  Capes,  to  the  Indian  Ocean 
and  to  farther  parts  of  the  East,  as  well  as  to  all 
latitudes  of  the  Pacific  coast,  were  so  exclusively 
hers,  that  to  the  native  traders  in  their  localities 
the  names  "  American  "  and  "  Bostonian,"  were 
synonymous.  The  enterprise  and  intelligence  of 
her  business  men,  and  their  accumulated  wealth 
and  the  liberality  with  which  it  was  dispensed  and 
enjoyed,  gave  them  the  distinctive  title  of  "  merchant 
princes " :  the  only  smack  of  royalty  which  they 
would  have  tolerated  even  by  implication. 


30  BANQUET   TO   THE 

Such  was  the  generation  of  Boston  merchants  under 
whose  tutelage  Mr.  Wilder  came,  in  the  commence- 
ment of  his  business  career;  and  during  the  whole 
of  it  he  has  not  only  sustained  the  honorable  renown 
w^hich  they  had  earned  and  have  transmitted,  but  he 
has  so  kept  pace  with  every  new  fact  in  knowledge, 
and  so  applied  what  he  has  gained  in  other  pursuits 
than  that  of  trade,  as  greatly  to  beautify  life  to  others, 
and  to  secure  for  himself  a  distinction  which  is  at 
once  unique  and  conspicuous.  Agriculture  brings 
the  products  of  her  bountiful  harvests  as  a  testimony 
of  his  services  to  her;  Horticulture,  her  beautiful 
trophies  to  be  woven  into  a  garland  for  his  birthday 
anniversary;  and  Pomology,  her  luscious  fruits  as  fit 
symbols  of  a  life  ripening  into  its  maturity,  yet  pre- 
serving its  flavor  and  richness.  There  is  hardly 
a  public  enterprise  of  the  last  three  generations, 
scarcely  a  pursuit  in  life,  or  an  institution  of  patriot- 
ism, discipline,  or  charity,  that  does  not  bear  the  sig- 
net of  his  touch  and  feel  the  vigor  of  his  co-operation. 
Why,  Sir,  it  may  be  said,  almost  with  literal  truth, 
that  the  trees  which  this  great  arborist  has  planted 
and  cultivated  and  loved  are  not  more  numerous 
than  the  evidences  of  his  handiwork  in  all  the  useful 
and  beneficent  departments  of  life ;  and  all  the  flow- 
ers that  shall  grow  to  the  end  of  time  ought  to 
bear  fragrance  to  his  memory. 


HOx\.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  3 1 


General  Joshua  L.  Chamberlain,  Ex-Governor  of  Maine, 
and  late  President  of  Bowdoin  College,  was  called  upon, 
and  responded  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  —  I  should  be  sorry,  indeed,  if 
words  were  such  bad  servants  as  to  desert  me  when 
the  call  is  to  express  the  pleasure  I  feel  at  being  so 
opportunely  in  this  house  as  to  be  invited  to  join 
you  in  paying  this  tribute  of  respect  to  a  citizen 
whose  ofood  deeds  are  so  various,  so  extensive,  and 
so  long  continued,  and  whose  character  is  as  widely 
honored  as  it  is  well-known. 

The  name  of  an  "  old  Boston  merchant "  is  a  title 
of  honor  the  world  over.  The  preserver  of  historic 
character  and  fame  who  transmits  the  high  virtues 
of  our  ancestors  to  the  present  and  future  genera- 
tions, renders  a  service  for  which  his  country  owes 
him  thanks.  It  happens,  however,  that  within  the 
circles  most  familiar  to  my  younger  days,  the  name 
of  our  venerated  guest  is  associated  with  another 
service  which  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  is  more 
widely  felt  and  scarcely  less  widely  known  and  hon- 
ored than  either  of  the  others.  His  is  a  household 
name  where  choice  fruits  and  flowers  gladden  the 
gardens  and  the  home-circle. 

This  work  of  our  friend  is  a  high  art.  Merely  to 
imitate  Nature  is  but  an  humble  form  of  art.     But 


32  BANQUET   TO    THE 

to  improve  upon  Nature ;  to  tame  her  wild,  harsh 
tones ;  to  prune  her  wayward  ruggedness  and  barren 
shoots ;  to  guard  against  natural  enemies ;  to  banish 
the  germs  of  disease  and  death ;  to  cherish  best  pos- 
sibilities ;  to  regenerate,  beautify,  and  perfect  her : 
this  is  a  true  art,  and  a  token  of  man's  superior 
nature.  It  is  a  beautiful  privilege  to  enter  thus  into 
communion  with  Nature,  to  stand  at  the  source  and 
fountain  of  her  gifts,  to  see  her  mysterious  ways,  to 
learn  her  laws,  to  lay  a  sympathizing  hand  upon  her 
forces,  and  to  win  them  to  one's  thought  and  guide 
them  at  one's  will.  It  is  a  noble  art  to  direct  these 
powers  to  their  own  perfection  and  to  human  good. 
The  painter  or  the  sculptor  produces  but  the  likeness 
of  things :  a  likeness,  perhaps,  which  genius  has 
idealized  and  perfected,  but  only  an  image  after  all. 
But  here  is  an  art  which  is  true  creation,  which  pro- 
duces a  real  thing  and  a  living  thing.  These  things 
are  a  science  and  an  education :  and  so  our  honored 
friend  has  made  himself  Master  of  Nature's  arts,  and 
Doctor  of  her  laws  ! 

And  as  in  every  true  art,  what  is  for  beauty  is  also 
for  service.  It  seems  to  be  intended  by  the  Author 
of  Nature  that  she  should  in  all  the  fruits  most  sub- 
servient to  the  life  of  man  present  but  rude  types, 
yet  susceptible  of  various  perfectionments ;  and  that 
it  is  a  necessary  part  of  human  development  and 
culture  to  bring  out  the  possibilities  of  her  primitive 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  7,3 

types.  Neglected,  they  return  to  their  crude  form, 
and  become  a  bane  and  not  a  blessing.  The  com- 
mand to  subdue  the  earth  was  a  command  to  cultivate 
it ;  and  this  was  for  man  s  sake  as  well  as  for  Nature's. 
We  are  told,  on  highest  authority,  that  ages  ago  the 
earth  was  cursed  for  man's  sin  ;  and  some  have  been 
cynical  enough  to  say  that  our  New-England  soil, 
and  to  a  somewhat  extreme  degree  our  good  State 
of  Massachusetts,  had  got  more  than  her  fair  share 
of  it :  of  the  curse,  I  mean,  not  the  sin !  But  I  half 
remember.  Dr.  Blagden  will  prompt  me  if  I  cannot 
get  through,  that  that  shrewd  old  Hebrew  speech 
had  a  word  which  meant  either  to  bless  or  to  curse, 
according  as  you  took  things.  There  was  a  deep 
philosophy  in  that.  Curses  are  blessings  taken 
wrong  end  foremost!  Blessings  are  curses  if  you 
do  not  take  them  by  the  right  handles !  The  good 
if  dishonored,  becomes  an  evil  and  a  destroyer.  So 
it  may  not  be  wholly  wrong  to  fancy  that  the  earth 
cursed  for  man's  sin,  was  cursed  also  for  his  sake.  If 
he  fell  by  eating  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil,  then  he  must  use  that  knowledge  in  work- 
ing his  way  back  by  separating  the  good  from  the 
evil  thus  laid  on  Nature.  If  by  eating  an  apple  he 
fell  from  an  angel's  estate,  he  must  learn  to  bring  out 
an  apple  that  will  make  a  man  an  angel !  Has  not 
our  friend  done  that  ?  Has  he  not  learned  how 
to  redeem   the  earth   from    its   curse.''      It  is  glory 

3 


34  BANQUET   TO   THE 

enough  for  a  man  to  leave  the  world  better  than  he 
found  it. 

There  is  another  thing.  Such  work  gives  strength. 
It  is  a  good  thing  to  take  the  touch  of  earth.  There 
was  deep  significance  in  the  old  fable  of  Antaeus, 
who  in  the  wrestle  against  all  comers  took  on  new 
life  whenever  he  touched  the  earth,  and  his  final 
adversary  only  prevailed  by  lifting  him  into  the  air. 
But  nobody  ever  got  our  friend  into  the  air!  When 
wearied  with  the  various  strifes  of  chance  and  fate, 
he  turned  to  the  earth  and  sprung  up  with  new  vigor 
every  time.  Such  work  reacts  on  character.  A 
growth  in  grace,  so  to  speak,  runs  along  parallel 
with  this  development  of  nature.  While  one  is  thus 
working  amidst  the  laws  of  life,  and  bringing  out  the 
thousand  utilities  that  lie  hidden  in  the  earth,  it  is 
but  a  natural  analogy  that  he  should  bring  out  also 
those  expressions  of  infinite  beauty  and  service  that 
lie  in  the  possibilities  of  the  human  soul.  Who  can 
look  on  this  expressive  countenance,  and  not  feel  that 
he  has  found  this  grace,  and  realized  this  exceeding 
great  reward  ?  We  rejoice  in  this  honored  old 
age,  this  youth,  rounded,  beautified,  and  sweetened 
into  supreme  manhood ;  and  we  rejoice  also  that  it 
shall  remain  for  after  times  an  example  and  inspi- 
ration for  all  who  would  live  true  lives,  and  win 
the  honor  that  comes  here  and  hereafter  to  noble 
character. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  35 


The  Hon.  Frederick  Smyth,  Ex-Governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  Agricul- 
tural Society,  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  I  count  it  a 
high  honor  and  great  privilege  to  sit  at  this  table 
with  so  many  venerable  and  distinguished  men  of 
Massachusetts  and  New  England ;  and  especially 
so,  on  such  an  auspicious  occasion  as  the  birthday 
of  my  honored  and  venerated  friend.  Although 
associated  with  him  officially  in  the  United  States 
Agricultural  Society,  the  American  Pomological  So- 
ciety, and  other  organizations,  for  more  than  thirty 
years,  I  have  been  his  pupil,  sitting  at  his  feet  and 
learning  what  I  could,  not  only  of  scientific  pursuits 
akin  to  agriculture,  but  of  those  graces  and  virtues  as 
well  which  adorn  the  civilization  of  our  time;  and, 
while  revering  him  as  a  master,  loving  him  as  a 
friend  above  most  other  men  whom  it  has  been  my 
good  fortune  to  know. 

The  President  of  your  Agricultural  College  has  told 
us  how  much  Colonel  Wilder  has  done  for  the  schools 
and  colleges  of  Massachusetts.  Why,  Mr.  President,  I 
consider  Marshall  P.  Wilder  a  college  himself,  a  great 
university,  from  which  has  gone  out  to  the  people 
a  knowledge  made  practical  by  the  tests  of  his  expe- 


36  BANQUET   TO   THE 

rience.  To  minister  to  the  delight  of  the  eye,  or  to 
the  pleasure  of  a  healthy  and  refined  appetite,  is  an 
object  worthy  of  any  man's  attainment ;  and  so  thou- 
sands may  bless  the  thoughtful  care  of  that  public 
benefactor  whose  wealth,  acquired  in  an  honorable 
mercantile  career,  has  been  devoted  to  such  wonderful 
improvements  in  the  fruits  and  flowers  of  our  land. 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  I  have  the  honor  to 
represent  here  the  State  which  claims  with  pride  to 
be  the  birthplace  of  our  honored  friend.  The  people 
of  New  Hampshire  to-night  greet  Marshall  P.  Wilder 
on  the  eighty-fifth  anniversary  of  his  birth,  and  they 
hope  and  pray  that  his  life  may  be  spared  yet  many 
years  to  bless  those  who  have  so  many  reasons  to 
bless  him.  And  I  know  they  are  proud  to  have 
given  so  good  and  so  great  a  man  to  Massachusetts. 

New  Hampshire  once  had  a  distinguished  son 
whom  she  delighted  to  honor  as  a  great  man  at  home, 
but  it  was  said  that  when  he  was  called  to  spread 
himself  over  the  whole  land  he  was  rather  thin ;  but 
here  is  one  who,  if  I  may  so  speak,  has  spread  him- 
self not  only  over  our  States  and  Territories,  but  over 
lands  across  the  sea,  a  genial  and  gentle  ruler,  and 
yet  with  no  diminution  of  his  substantial  presence, 
or  in  all  that  is  glorious  and  lovable.  God  still  con- 
tinue to  bless  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  until  glorified 
above ! 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  37 


Ex-Governor  Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  U.  S.  Marshal,  was 
called  upon,  and  responded  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President, —  It  has  given  me  great  pleasure  to 
participate  in  the  well-deserved  and  generous  honors 
paid  to  the  distinguished  citizen  who  is  the  guest  of 
this  occasion.  I  cannot  say,  as  so  many  gentlemen 
have  said,  that  I  did  not  expect  to  be  called  upon  for 
a  speech.  One  might  as  well  think  to  sit  at  a  Parker- 
House  banquet,  celebrated  the  world  over,  and  not 
partake  of  the  feast,  as  to  listen  to  the  praises  of  a 
citizen  whose  whole  life  marks  one  of  the  golden 
periods  of  human  existence,  and  not  venture,  after 
the  well-nigh  universal  American  custom,  less  hon- 
ored by  the  observance  than  the  breach,  I  think, 
either  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  approval  or  echo  the 
praises  sounded  by  others.  And  yet  I  confess  I 
am  ill  prepared  to  do  what  I  well  know  should  be 
done  upon  an  occasion  of  such  personal  and  public 
interest. 

It  is  rare  good  fortune  that  has  vouchsafed  to  our 
honored  guest  the  ripe  and  wholesome  age  of  four- 
score and  five  years,  passed  in  such  peaceful  and 
pleasant  places,  attended  by  such  beneficent  influ- 
ences, such  remarkable  activity  as  are  exhibited  in  his 
career.     Shakspeare  makes  one  of  the  greatest  of  his 


38  BANQUET   TO   THE 

characters  say,  in  delineating  the  events  closing  a 
long  and  tempestuous  career,  that  "Age  is  un- 
necessary." In  the  sense  that  no  person  and  no  life 
can  be  indispensable  to  a  full  development  of  the 
majestic  and  inscrutable  laws  of  Nature,  we  may  well 
say  that  age  is  not  an  essential  element  of  the  des- 
tiny of  men  and  events.  But  such  a  sheaf  of  years 
and  honors,  the  fruits  of  uninterrupted  and  long- 
continued  meritorious  service  as  gentlemen  have  re- 
vealed to  us,  must  be  taken  into  any  account  current 
of  civilization,  and  welcomed  as  providential  occur- 
rences in  the  lives  of  men  and  nations.  They  illus- 
trate the  commencement  as  well  as  the  close  of  his 
life.  Youth  and  age  are  alike  distinguished  and 
honored  in  him.  In  every  direction  his  path  is  lu- 
minous. He  has  been  a  tireless  student  of  Nature, 
a  bold  investigator,  audacious  in  experiment,  fertile 
in  resources,  prodigal  of  labor,  unselfish  and  even 
lavish  in  the  distribution  of  the  fruits  of  his  study 
and  toil.  It  was  thus  at  a  time  when  our  people 
were  incredulous  and  hopeless  as  to  improvement 
in  the  ordinary  methods  of  industry  and  labor,  and 
especially  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  its  in- 
numerable products,  that  he  opened  to  us  affluent 
and  endless  sources  of  local  and  national  wealth. 

But  it  interests  me  less  to  speculate  on  what  he 
has  done  (indeed,  nothing  is  left  unsaid  in  that 
direction)  than   to  inquire   by  what  occult  methods 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  39 

or  powers  he  has  accomplished  so  niuch  in  so  many 
useful  yet  divergent  walks  of  life.  In  speaking  of 
different  religions  which  have  been  received  and 
cherished  by  men,  Mr.  Gibbon,  the  historian,  says 
that  the  Christians  adopted  the  religion  of  the  Jews, 
adding  to  it  one  element :  an  element  of  supernal 
power  indeed:  Sociability.  What  widespread  and 
beneficent  changes  has  it  not  wrought  in  secular  as 
well  as  in  religious  affairs,  by  concert  of  action  among 
men  of  good  will  and  good  works  !  It  elevated  fami- 
lies into  races,  villages  into  kingdoms,  that  in  the 
steady  progress  of  their  triumphs  "  sang  Tc  Deitins  in 
nations  rather  than  in  choirs."  The  growth  of  such 
organizations  continued  through  centuries,  until  age 
appeared  an  indispensable  and  vital  rather  than  a 
superfluous  ally,  and  permanent  success  was  assured 
in  the  perpetual  union  of  beneficent  institutions  and 
principles. 

It  is  easy  for  us  to  see  in  what  manner  affability, 
courtesy,  personal  integrity,  confidence,  courage,  and 
endurance,  qualities  which  influence  individuals  as 
sociability  affects  civilization,  have  contributed  to 
his  success  in  the  numerous  and  important  social 
and  national  enterprises  which  make  the  character 
and  career  of  our  distinguished  guest  illustrious. 
I  can  scarcely  enumerate,  much  less  analyze  or 
characterize  them,  and  therefore  limit  myself  to 
special  notice  of  but  one:  his  connection  with  the 


40  BANQUET   TO   THE 

oldest  mllitar}'-  organization  of  the  Republic  of 
the  United  States,  The  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company. 

This  ancient  and  well-styled  "Honorable"  com- 
pany of  citizen-soldiers  was  incorporated  in  1638, 
eight  years  after  the  settlement  of  Boston,  and  has 
continued  two  hundred  and  forty-five  years  in  unin- 
terrupted and  meritorious  service.  During  Shays's 
Rebellion,  the  Governor  and  other  officers  of  the 
State  often  met  the  Ancients  at  Faneuil  Hall  in  con- 
sultation upon  military  affairs.  The  company  has 
had  many  illustrious  commanders.  Mr.  Wilder  was 
the  one  hundred  and  fifty-fifth  in  regular  succession, 
elected  in  1856.  The  volunteer  militia  of  Massachu- 
setts was  not  then  honored  as  it  has  been  at  later 
periods.  In  the  discussion  of  the  constitution,  in  1853, 
it  was  urged  (not  by  reformers  or  non-resistants  only, 
but  by  eminent  citizens  of  high  rank  in  civil  and  mili- 
tary service),  that  the  militia  should  be  organized  for 
police  service  only,  and  that  no  soldier  in  any  case 
should  be  required  to  leave  the  State  except  upon  his 
own  consent,  nor  even  then  except  to  accompany  the 
Governor.  At  public  celebrations,  on  national  anni- 
versaries, the  best  organized  military  companies  were 
assailed  with  burning  words  of  scorn  and  derision. 
A  few  years  later,  fewer  than  could  have  been  antici- 
pated at  that  time,  Massachusetts  had  ordered  one 
hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand  of    her  troops  to 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  4 1 

invade  insurgent  States  of  the  republic,  and  other 
States  and  Territories  increased  the  number  to  very 
nearly  three  million  defenders  of  the  Union. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  our  guest  gave  his 
own  energy  and  spirit  to  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company  while  he  commanded  it.      This 
corps  has  been  honored  in  other  States  as  a  just  type 
of  past  military  organizations.     Much  of  its  renown  at 
home  and  abroad  is  due  to  its  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
fifth   commander.     Recognizing  its  connection  with 
the  Ancient  Royal  Artillery  of  London,  often  com- 
manded by  the  sovereigns  of   England,  and  at  that 
time  by  His  Royal  Highness  Prince  Albert,  Prince 
Consort,  he  opened  with  him  a  correspondence  which 
led  to  the  enrolment  of  Prince  Albert,  and  later  of 
the  present   Prince  of  Wales,  as  Special    Honorary 
Members    of   the   Ancient  and   Honorable  Artillery 
of  Boston.     Both  companies  are  recognized  in  Eng- 
lish and  American  history  as  representing  the  best 
type  of  military  veterans. 

It  is  fortunate  that  during  this  period  the  relations 
of  England  and  America  were  so  administered  by 
the  pre-eminent  English  and  American  statesmen  of 
that  day,  that  no  untoward  word  or  deed  disturbed 
the  profound  peace  that  reigned  between  the  two 
countries.  We  are  for  that  reason  relieved  from  the 
painful  duty  of  speculating  upon  results  that  might 
have  chano^ed  the  even  balance  of  nations,  if  those 


42  BANQUET   TO   THE 

ancient  corps  had  met  in  the  dread  shock  of  battle, 
commanded  by  the  Prince  Consort  and  the  Prince 
Merchant  ! 

Alexander  wept,  they  say,  when  told  in  his  youth 
that  no  more  worlds  remained  for  him  to  conquer. 
Our  honored  exemplar,  guest,  and  friend,  in  a  ripe 
old  age,  with  greater  wisdom,  smiles  to  see  that  for 
him  there  are  no  more  impossibilities  over  which  he 
can  triumph.  So  numerous  and  so  striking  are  his 
trophies,  that  it  seems  even  for  us,  emulators  of  his 
fame,  there  are  no  more  impossibilities  to  conquer ! 
But  there  is  one  left,  for  us,  for  our  successors,  for  all 
men  :  the  impossibility  of  finding  another  Marshall 
Pinckney  Wilder  ! 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER. 


43 


The  Hon.  Leverett  Saltonstall,  Vice-President  of  the 
Massachusetts  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Agriculture, 
responded  for  that  Society  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen, —  I  accepted  with 
great  pleasure  your  very  kind  invitation  to  this 
dinner  in  honor  of  our  venerable  friend,  the  Hon. 
Marshall  P.  Wilder,  who  has  completed  his  eighty- 
fifth  year,  and  is  with  us  to-day  as  fresh  and  vigorous 
in  his  appearance  as  he  is  in  intellect ;  and  though  I 
had  not  thought,  in  the  presence  of  so  many  dis- 
tinguished guests,  to  be  called  upon  to  speak  on  this 
occasion,  yet  it  gives  me  unqualified  pleasure  to  add 
my  congratulations  to  swell  the  chorus  of  affection 
and  respect  which  arises  from  so  many  full  hearts. 

Sir,  I  doubt  if  there  has  ever  been  so  exceptional 
a  gathering  as  this  in  honor  of  one  during  his  life, 
at  so  advanced  an  age ;  and  I  trust  it  may  in  some 
measure  recompense  Colonel  Wilder  for  his  many 
generous  and  useful  services  rendered  not  only  to  his 
friends  and  neighbors,  but  to  the  State  and  Nation. 
Eminent  as  a  merchant,  he  is  equally  distinguished 
in  the  arts  of  horticulture  and  agriculture.  He  has 
bestowed  years  of  careful  thought  and  untiring  zeal 
in  inspiring  a  love  for  them  among  his  fellow-men  ; 
and  for  the  good  his  enthusiasm  in  these  pursuits  has 


44  BANQUET   TO    THE 

accomplished,  his  name  will  long  be  held  in  deepest 
respect  and  gratitude. 

He  says  he  is  proud  of  his  success  as  a  merchant, 
for  it  is  as  such  that  he  has  secured  the  means  to 
carry  into  effect  his  generous  designs  in  other  direc- 
tions. He  well  might  add  that  he  is  grateful  for  his 
love  of  the  field  and  the  garden,  for  to  them  he  owes 
tliat  freshness  of  nature  and  vigor  of  mind  which 
have  brought  success  to  him  in  business. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  be  associated  with  him  for 
several  years  in  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  where 
his  interest  in  the  work  of  the  Board,  and  his  watch- 
fulness for  its  advancement,  were  most  conspicuous. 
Truly,  to  him  is  "  the  hoary  head  a  crown  of  glory." 
His  life  is  a  lesson  to  the  young  and  the  old,  and  I 
wish  they  would  study  his  well-balanced  character  as 
their  best  example.     May  he  be  long  spared  to  us  ! 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  45 


The  Hon.  Francis  B.  Hayes,  President  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Horticultural  Society,  responded  for  that  associa- 
tion as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  You  have  as- 
signed to  me  the  agreeable  duty  of  speaking  for  the 
Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society  on  this  interest- 
ing occasion,  and  especially  in  reference  to  the  con- 
nection of  our  honored  guest  with  it. 

Let  us  recall  the  past,  and  briefly  recount  some  of 
the  incidents  of  his  life. 

In  an  inland  village  in  New  Hampshire,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  present  century,  might  be 
seen  a  little  boy  instructed  at  his  mother's  knee 
in  the  principles  of  morality  and  religion,  which  he 
has  never  forgotten.  Soon  after,  we  see  him  a  dili- 
gent pupil  in  the  district  school.  When  old  enough, 
he  engages  in  rural  pursuits,  until  he  Is  induced,  by 
the  laudable  desire  of  supporting  himself  and  Improv- 
ing his  condition,  to  engage  In  such  business  occupa- 
tions as  opportunity  presents  to  him  in  his  native 
place.  Growing  ambitious  to  take  a  more  prominent 
position  In  life,  he  leaves  his  native  town,  with  the 
respect  of  all  the  neighborhood,  and  enters  upon 
a  successful  business  career  In  this  city ;  passing 
through  all  the  grades  of  advancement  by  which  the 


46  BANQUET   TO   THE 

worthy  and  Industrious  young  man  rises,  till  he  is 
an  active  member  of  one  of  the  leading  mercantile 
houses  of  the  country. 

But  the  love  of  Nature  possesses  his  soul,  and, 
while  not  neglecting  his  business  duties,  we  find 
him  deeply  Interested  In  agricultural  and  horticul- 
tural subjects;  and  thus  he  Is  brought  In  contact 
with  older  men  of  similar  tastes.  When  a  little 
more  than  thirty  years  of  age,  we  see  him  asso- 
ciated with  Dearborn,  Lowell,  Story,  Everett,  and 
others,  engaged  In  the  study  and  practice  of  the  sci- 
ence and  art  of  horticulture,  and  the  founders  and 
supporters  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society. 
All  acknowledge  his  zeal  and  wisdom  In  forwarding 
the  objects  of  that  Society.  Soon  he  Is  placed  at 
Its  head,  and  diligently  and  faithfully  guards  and  pro- 
motes Its  Interests,  as  Its  President,  for  eight  years. 
During  this  period  the  Society  attained  a  much  more 
elevated  position  than  It  had  ever  before  reached.  He 
continues,  after  retiring  from  office,  to  be  a  leading 
member  of  the  Society,  notwithstanding  the  cares  of 
business  and  the  distractions  of  political  life,  which 
his  fellow-citizens  insist  upon  his  entering,  occupy 
his  attention.  A  devoted  lover  of  Nature,  he  will 
not  abandon  this  love,  whatever  may  be  the  temp- 
tations to  do  so.  He  is  the  President  of  the  Ameri- 
can Pomological  Society,  which  office  he  has  held 
thirty-four  years,  and   was    President  of   the   United 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  47 

States  Agricultural  Society  for  several  years ;  he  is 
senior  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture, 
and  holds  many  other  offices  of  trust  and  honor; 
yet  he  continues  to  remain  one  of  the  main  stays  of 
the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  a  constant 
attendant  at  its  meetings,  and  an  earnest  and  active 
guardian  of  its  concerns.  I  stand  now  in  the  pres- 
ence of  many  members  of  that  Society,  and  I  remem- 
ber the  important  and  valuable  services  of  Dearborn 
and  Lowell,  of  Bigelow,  Hunnewell,  the  Hoveys, 
the  Brecks,  the  Mannings,  Whitmore,  Strong,  Hyde, 
Parkman,  Gray,  and  many  others ;  yet  I  think  the 
members  of  the  Society  will  unanimously  concur 
with  me  in  the  opinion  that  no  one  has  been  a  more 
prominent  friend  of  this  institution,  no  one  has  done 
more,  if  so  much,  for  the  cause  of  horticulture  in  this 
community,  by  his  tongue,  his  pen,  and  his  various 
labors,  as  the  honored  guest  of  this  evening. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  cannot  but  allude  to  the  benevo- 
lence and  kindness  of  heart  of  our  venerable  friend, 
and  the  reliijious  element  which  is  at  the  foun- 
dation  of  his  character.  Notwithstanding  the  emi- 
nent positions  he  has  occupied,  notwithstanding  the 
high  esteem  and  respect  his  life  has  commanded,  and 
though  social  elevation  is  not  infrequently  attended 
with  hauteur  and  reserve,  separating  apparently  the 
more  distinguished  from  those  less  highly  favored, 
yet  our  friend  always  shows  himself  the  simple  Chris- 


48  BANQUET   TO   THE 

tian  gentlemen,  easily  accessible,  and  ready  to  serve 
all  to  the  extent  of  his  ability.  His  life  and  character 
recall  to  me  the  beautiful  lines  of  Sir  Henry  Wotton, 
when  he  describes  the  good  and  truly  happy  man :  — 

"  Who  God  doth  late  and  early  pray 
More  of  his  grace  than  gifts  to  lend  ; 
And  entertains  the  harmless  day 
With  a  religious  book  or  friend." 

Long,  long  may  the  life  of  our  venerable  friend  be 
spared  to  us !  for  in  him  the  community  has  a  most 
worthy  citizen,  the  associations  with  which  he  is  con- 
nected a  wise  counsellor  and  safe  guide,  and  all  of  us 
a  true  friend. 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  49 

The  Hon.  Daniel  Needham,  Secretary  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Agricultural  Society,  spoke  in  behalf  of  that  Society  as 
follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  It  gives  me 
great  pleasure  to  be  present  on  this  occasion,  and 
give  utterance  to  a  word  of  testimony  commemo- 
rative of  the  eighty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  distin- 
guished guest  who  sits  at  your  right  hand.  I  have 
long  had  the  honor  of  the  acquaintance  of  Marshall 
P.  Wilder ;  and  as  I  have  studied  his  labors  of  useful- 
ness and  beneficence,  I  have  grown  into  an  admira- 
tion of  the  man,  which  has  been  shared,  as  I  well 
know,  not  only  by  a  few  friends,  but  by  communities 
of  men  limited  by  no  geographical  lines.  The  name 
of  Marshall  P.  Wilder  is  historic ;  his  labors  in  Agri- 
culture and  Horticulture,  two  great  industries  which 
underlie  the  prosperity  of  States  and  Nations,  have 
made  his  name  immortal,  and  indelibly  inscribed  it 
upon  the  scroll  of  great  and  distinguished  men  in  all 
nationalities.  Well  may  we,  as  his  neighbors  and 
friends,  come  together  to  give  emphasis  to  our 
admiration ;  and  well  might  we,  as  citizens  of  a 
great  nation,  even  were  he  not  our  personal  friend, 
come  together  to  emphasize  the  honor  which  his 
name  and  his  labors  have  conferred  upon  our  coun- 
try and  the  world.  Sir,  his  name  is  as  imperishable 
as  the  granite  hills  among  which  he  was  born. 

4 


50  BANQUET   TO   THE 


The  Rev.  Edward  N,  Packard,  Minister  of  the  Second 
Church,  Dorchester,  was  called  upon,  and  responded  as 
follows  :  —  _ 

Mr.  President,  —  I  owe  my  invitation,  on  this 
occasion,  to  the  fact  that  I  stand  in  the  relation  of 
pastor  to  our  venerable  guest.  I  count  it  a  great 
honor  to  be  in  such  a  succession  of  ministers  as  the 
Second  Church  in  Dorchester  shows.  Colonel  Wilder 
was  for  many  years  the  intimate  friend  of  the  first 
pastor  of  that  church,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Codman.  He 
joined  in  welcoming  the  Rev.  Dr.  Means,  as  next  in 
succession,  and  proved  himself  for  thirty  years,  while 
Dr.  Means  held  the  office,  a  most  valued  friend  and 
helper  to  his  minister.  It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  me, 
when  a  few  years  ago  I  returned  to  New  England,  to 
be  so  cordially  welcomed  and  heartily  supported  by 
this  beloved  parishioner,  whose  name  stands  on  the 
call  which  I  received,  and  who  for  more  than  fifty 
years  has  been  a  most  conspicuous  figure  in  the  par- 
ish. "  Without  all  contradiction,  the  less  is  blessed  of 
the  better." 

The  relation  of  a  pastor  to  his  people  is  unlike  any 
other.  No  ties  of  friendship  are  more  intimate  or 
more  sacred.  How  much  the  minister  depends  upon 
the   affection,  the  counsel,  and   the  encouragement 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  51 

which  the  faithful  and  considerate  parishioner  may 
bring  to  him ! 

Mr.  President,  I  represent  here  to-night,  very  im- 
perfectly it  is  true,  that  Power  which  claims  at  least 
one  seventh  of  a  man's  living  hours.  There  comes  a 
day  in  each  week  when,  by  common  consent,  there  is 
a  truce  in  the  o-reat  world's  warfare  and  toil.  There 
comes  a  day.  Gentlemen,  when  all  the  strain  and 
struggle  of  your  commerce,  all  the  pursuits  of  your 
agriculture,  cease,  and  man  can  turn  his  thoughts 
to  higher  things.  And  it  is  these  higher  things 
that  give  value  to  the  lower ;  it  is  the  carrying  of 
the  hio-her  into  the  lower  that  redeems  them  and 
makes  them  blessings.  Everything,  indeed,  rests 
in  something  higher  than  itself :  the  material  in 
the  spiritual.  What  we  see  here  to-night,  these 
fruits  and  flowers  developed  by  human  taste  and 
skill :  this  is  the  higher  and  the  spiritual  invading 
the  material  and  using  it  for  its  own  ends.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  coming  of  the  kingdoni  of  heaven 
will  be  by  the  interpenetration  of  the  earthly  by 
the  heavenly.  I  believe  that  the  time  will  come 
when,  literally,  it  shall  be  true  that  "  the  wilderness 
and  the  solitary  place  shall  be  glad  because  of  Him, 
and  the  desert  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the 
rose." 

I  am  glad  to  be  here,  Mr.  President,  and  join  with 
you  in  this  heart-felt  tribute  of  affection  and  venera- 


52  BANQUET   TO   THE 

tion  to  Colonel  Wilder.  Do  we  not  all  hope  that 
when  the  time  comes  for  him  to  draw  near  the  other 
world,  the  gates  of  the  heavenly  paradise  may  open 
before  him,  and  no  sword  of  cherubim  may  bar  his 
entrance  ? 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  53 


The  Rev.  Edmund  F.  Slafter,  Corresponding  Secretary 
of  the  New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society,  was  called 
upon,  and  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  The  occasion 
which  has  brought  us  together  naturally  turns  our 
thoughts  to  the  little  rural  town  of  Rindge,  on  the 
southern  borders  of  New  Hampshire,  in  whose  his- 
tory one  of  the  most  interesting  features  is  the  birth 
of  a  boy-baby,  which  occurred  eighty-five  years  ago 
to-day.  The  parents  were  so  young  that  in  law  they 
and  their  young  scion  were  infants  together.  The 
father  had  not  attained  his  majority,  and  the  mother 
was  still  younger.  If,  in  general,  we  regard  it  an 
act  of  imprudence  to  organize  a  family  at  so  early  an 
age,  nevertheless,  in  this  particular  case,  I  am  sure, 
we  shall  all  be  agreed  that  the  enterprising  young 
couple  could  not  have  done  a  wiser  or  a  better  thing. 
I  was  told  to-day,  by  a  lady,  that  every  mother  expects, 
when  she  gives  birth  to  a  son,  that  he  will  some  day 
be  President  of  the  United  States.  What  forecast- 
ings  that  young  mother,  on  the  borders  of  New 
Hampshire,  had,  as  she  gazed  upon  her  baby-boy 
while  he  lay  slumbering  in  the  new  cradle  that  had 
just  been  brought  into  the  house,  or  in  the  old  one 
that  had  come  down  as  an  heirloom  in  the  family,  I 


54  BANQUET  TO  THE 

know  not;  but  if  her  prescience  pictured  to  her 
mind  what  he  was  really  and  actually  to  become,  she 
must  have  felt  a  truer  and  loftier  pride  than  she  could 
have  experienced  in  the  belief  that  he  would  attain, 
by  the  crooked  ways  now  too  often  jDractised,  to  the 
chief  magistracy  of  this  great  nation. 

Sixteen  years  ago  I  was  appointed,  by  the  New 
England  Historic  Genealogical  Society,  chairman  of 
a  committee  to  nominate  a  president  for  that  associa- 
tion, a  vacancy  having  just  occurred  by  the  death  of 
the  lamented  Governor  Andrew.  It  was  important 
that  the  occupant  of  the  chair  of  that  great  Society, 
then  numbering  not  less  than  eight  hundred  mem- 
bers (men  of  high  standing  and  character  in  all  the 
New  England  States,  and  indeed  in  other  States  of 
the  Union  and  in  other  countries),  should  possess 
eminent  and  peculiar  qualifications.  In  looking 
through  our  large  membership,  our  attention  was 
soon  directed  to  the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder.  We 
traced  his  career  from  his  boyhood  onward,  in  the 
school,  the  academy ;  his  brief  apprenticeship  on 
his  father's  farm  and  in  liis  father's  store ;  in  the 
establishment  of  a  business  for  himself ;  his  re- 
moval to  the  metropolis ;  his  prudent  beginning, 
and  steady  progress  for  many  years,  always  advanc- 
ing, never  receding ;  and  then,  after  the  lapse  ot 
forty  years,  still  a  Boston  merchant  in  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  respected  mercantile  houses  in  the 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  55 

city:  in  all  this  we  found  an  element  of  character 
which  we  desired  in  the  future  President  of  our 
Society. 

Our  attention  was  also  attracted  by  his  military 
career,  not  in  war,  but  in  peace.  Happily,  no  war 
occurred  during  the  strength  of  his  manhood  to  call 
him  into  the  public  service.  In  his  native  State  he 
was  enrolled  in  the  militia  at  sixteen,  was  quarter- 
master-sergeant at  eighteen,  adjutant  of  a  regiment 
at  twenty-one,  captain  of  a  company  at  twenty-two, 
lieutenant-colonel  at  twenty-four,  and  colonel  of  a 
regiment  at  twenty-six  years  of  age  :  thus  early  ob- 
taining the  military  title  which  is  so  familiar  to  us  in 
connection  with  his  nam^e,  and  which  he  has  now 
borne  through  a  period  of  more  than  sixty  years. 
In  Boston  he  was  commander  of  the  Ancient  and 
Honorable  Artillery  Company,  chartered  in  1638, 
the  oldest  military  organization  in  the  United  States. 
His  splendid  physique,  his  natural  dignity,  and  his 
graceful  bearing  were  in  fine  accord  with  all  these 
positions,  which  he  successively  filled,  and  to  which, 
by  his  presence  and  influence,  he  gave  a  new  value 
and  importance.  His  military  tastes  and  services 
were  to  us,  Mr.  President,  no  objection  in  the  man 
whom  we  desired  as  President  of  our  Society. 

But  again  we  found  that  the  proclivity  of  his  mind, 
as  clearly  evinced  in  his  boyhood  when  he  tried  his 
hand  at  the  plough  and  the  hoe  on  his  father's  farm, 


56  BANQUET   TO   THE 

sprang  from  a  root  far  down  in  the  deep  recesses 
of  his  nature,  and  could  not  be  repressed  or  extin- 
guished by  other  occupations  and  pursuits.  At  an 
early  period,  first  as  a  recreation,  and  afterward  with 
a  higher  purpose,  he  became  a  gentleman  farmer  in 
name,  but  really  a  practical  and  scientific  farmer 
in  its  truest  and  noblest  meaning.  The  relation  of 
soils  to  specific  products  was  studied  and  made  the 
subject  of  experiment ;  and  this  not  for  himself 
alone,  but  for  the  great  farming  public  of  the  nation. 
Fruit-trees  and  fruit-culture,  flora-culture  and  flora- 
hybridizing,  and  a  proper  nomenclature  in  pomology, 
received  his  careful  and  assiduous  attention ;  and 
these  labors  have  been  followed  by  the  most  satis- 
factory results.  He  has  always  been  a  profound 
believer  in  organized  and  associated  effort,  and  his 
name  has  been  connected  from  the  start  with  those 
great  associations  in  this  line  which  have  so  marvel- 
lously elevated  and  dignified  agricultural  pursuits. 
He  was  the  organizer  and  first  President  of  the  Nor- 
folk Agricultural  Society,  which  office  he  held  for 
twenty  years ;  the  first  President  of  the  Central  Board, 
the  forerunner  and  parent  of  our  State  Board  of 
Agriculture ;  the  organizer,  and  the  first  President, 
of  the  United  States  Agricultural  Society  at  Wash- 
ington ;  the  organizer,  likewise,  of  the  American 
Pomological  Society  in  New  York,  in  1S48,  of  which 
he  was  the  first   President  (and  I  may  add  that  he 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  57 

has  been  President  of  that  Society,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  term,  down  to  the  present  moment) ;  he 
was  at  the  front  in  the  establishment  of  our  Agri- 
cultural College,  was  the  first  trustee  elected  on  its 
Board,  and  was  present  and  delivered  a  discourse 
to  its  first  class  at  their  graduation.  The  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology  is  also  indebted  to 
him  from  its  start  for  valuable  service.  His  interest 
in  these  institutions  has  never  faltered,  his  hand  has 
never  been  weary,  his  voice  never  silent,  and  his  pen 
never  idle.  His  addresses  on  agriculture,  embracing 
horticulture  and  pomology,  and  on  other  subjects,  are 
exceedingly  numerous,  and  are  full  of  valuable  infor- 
mation, clothed  in  language  at  once  clear,  vivacious, 
and  inspiring. 

We  found,  also,  in  this  survey,  that  Colonel  Wilder 
had  been  a  member  of  both  houses  of  the  Legisla- 
ture of  the  State,  and  of  the  Governor's  Council,  and 
President  of  the  Massachusetts  Senate.  In  all  these 
public  positions  in  which  he  had  been  placed  by  the 
suffrage  of  his  scrutinizing  fellow-citizens,  in  all  these 
public  acts  and  doings,  we  found  that  he  was  many- 
sided,  that  his  nature  was  broad  and  expansive,  that 
he  had  a  great  heart  and  a  clear  head,  realizing  in 
himself  the  old  Latin  vci2,y\\T\,  Humani  nihil  alienum ; 
that  nothing  was  unworthy  of  his  consideration  which 
relates  to  the  welfare  of  man.  I  need  hardly  inform 
you,  Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  that  when  we  pre- 


58  BANQUET   TO   THE 

sented  his  name  as  President  of  our  Society,  his  elec- 
tion was  carried  by  a  unanimous  vote ;  and  now  for 
sixteen  years  he  has  been  annually  re-elected  without 
a  dissenting  voice ;  and  for  the  last  few  years,  as  a 
mark  of  special  respect  and  reverence,  the  members 
have  risen  in  their  seats  to  receive  the  announcement 
of  his  election. 

I  have  thus  touched  upon  some  of  the  reasons,  Mr. 
President,  and  Gentlemen,  which  influenced  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Society  which  I  have  here  the  honor  to 
represent.  When  Colonel  Wilder  became  President, 
in  1868,  the  Society  had  been  established  twenty- 
three  years  ;  it  had  a  large  membership,  a  library  of 
eight  thousand  volumes,  which  had  floated  in  from 
members  and  others  almost  entirely  as  gifts,  with 
some  valuable  manuscripts,  and  a  thousand  dollars  in 
funds.  This  constituted  the  whole  property  of  the 
Society.  It  was  certainly  a  good  beginning  for  a 
historical  association,  starting  out  on  a  new  line  of 
investigation.  But  a  great  Society,  having  a  great 
purpose,  could  not  bestow  its  library  conveniently  for 
use,  or  increase  it  to  meet  the  growing  demands, 
in  a  rented  flat  of  uncertain  tenure  in  a  mercantile 
building. 

Soon  after  Colonel  Wilder  became  President  of 
the  Society,  a  building  committee  was  appointed, 
of  which  he  was  chairman,  whose  business  it  was  to 
erect  or  purchase  a  suitable  building,  and  perform  the 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  59 

uninviting  task  of  obtaining  the  money  to  pay  for  it. 
However  difficult  it  may  be  for  us  to  believe  that 
it  was  an  easy  task  to  accomplish  this  work,  never- 
theless, within  a  few  months  after  the  undertaking 
was  begun,  the  sum  of  forty-two  thousand  dollars 
was  secured  for  the  purpose,  nearly  all  of  which 
was  obtained  by  the  personal  solicitation  of  Colonel 
Wilder  himself ;  a  house  was  purchased,  remodelled, 
and  paid  for,  and  is  now  the  unencumbered  property 
of  the  Society.  In  addition  to  this  he  solicited,  per- 
sonally, with  the  assistance  of  one  or  two  others,  twelve 
thousand  dollars  towards  the  endowment  of  the  So- 
ciety ;  and  in  his  annual  addresses  he  has  called  upon 
members  not  to  forget  the  Society  in  their  testamen- 
tary bequests.  In  response,  several  legacies  have  been 
received,  so  that  our  funds  to-day  are  more  than  forty- 
two  thousand  dollars  ;  to  which,  adding  the  cost  of  the 
house,  the  amount  is  over  eighty-four  thousand  dollars, 
which  has  been  added  to  our  property  since  our  hon- 
ored guest  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  institution. 
Every  other  department  has  advanced  in  complete  har- 
mony with  this.  Our  library  has  gone  up  from  eight 
thousand  to  more  than  eighteen  thousand  volumes  ;  it 
has  more  than  doubled  in  numbers,  and  quadrupled 
in  working  value.  Our  membership  was  then  eight 
hundred,  and  is  now  more  than  eleven  hundred.  Our 
publications  are  more  numerous,  and  richer  in  ma- 
terial.    Our  buildinof  has  become  crowded,  and  too 


6o  BANQUET   TO   THE 

narrow  for  our  needs ;  and  our  venerable  and  enter- 
prising President  has  already  obtained  some  impor- 
tant pledges  for  its  proper  enlargement. 

In  Colonel  Wilder's  relation  to  all  this  growth,  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  he  has  not  had  able,  earnest, 
efficient,  and  responsive  co-workers.  But  I  do  mean 
to  say,  that,  by  his  annual  addresses  and  appeals, 
unfolding  in  numberless  ways  his  appreciation  of  the 
great  value  and  importance  of  family  and  local  his- 
tory, and  by  his  assiduous  and  unremitting  labors, 
and  especially  by  the  potency  of  his  magnetic  power 
over  the  minds  of  other  men,  he  has  done  much  to 
inspire  not  only  the  members  of  the  Society,  but  the 
great  body  of  our  New  England  population,  with  a 
just  love  and  interest  in  this  line  of  study,  and  they 
have  consequently  been  ready  and  happy  to  furnish 
the  means  and  facilities  for  carrying  on  these  impor- 
tant investigations. 

I  began,  Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  by  pointing 
out  some  of  the  reasons  which  induced  us  to  ask  our 
distinguished  guest  to  accept  the  Presidency  of  the 
New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society;  and 
now  I  venture  to  predict  that  he  will  continue  to  be 
the  President  of  that  institution  by  the  unanimous 
suffrage  of  its  members,  so  long  as  Providence 
lengthens  out  his  days,  and  so  long  as  he  is  willing 
to  hold  the  important  trust. 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  6 1 


Major  Ben  :  Perley  Poore,  Past  Commander  of  the 
Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company,  and  Secretary 
of  the  United  States  Agricultural  Society,  was  called  upon, 
and  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  —  It  has  been  asserted  that  no 
general  is  a  hero  in  the  eyes  of  his  orderly  sergeant ; 
but  I,  who  have  served  in  a  subordinate  capacity 
under  Colonel  Wilder,  in  the  United  States  Agricul- 
tural Society  and  in  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company,  regard  him  as  a  hero.  He  has 
attained  that  distinction  without  having  made  a 
widow  or  an  orphan,  without  having  caused  the  loss 
of  a  drop  of  blood  or  a  precious  life ;  he  has  been 
the  friend  of  religion  and  of  education ;  he  is  a 
worthy  and  well-qualified  brother  of  the  mystic  tie ; 
he  has  activel}''  sustained  our  parent  military  or- 
ganization ;  he  has  secured  the  preservation  of  our 
historical  and  genealogical  archives ;  he  has  im- 
proved our  trees,  plants,  fruits,  and  flowers ;  and  he 
has  "  caused  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  where  but 
one  grew  before."     What  a  noble  record  ! 

It  has  been  my  lot.  Sir,  as  many  at  these  tables 
know,  to  pass  nearly  six  months  of  each  of  the  last  fifty 
years  away  from  my  ancestral  acres  in  Massachusetts, 
and  to  have  occupied  a  position  in  connection  with 


62  BANQUET   TO   THE 

the  press,  that  has  enabled  me  to  be  somewhat  be- 
hind the  political  curtain  at  Washington,  and  to  know 
what  work  each  public  servant  there  has  performed. 
When  I  first  visited  the  National  Capital  some  of  the 
old  worthies  were  living,  and  the  intellectual  giants  of 
our  nation  were  in  their  prime.  Webster,  and  Clay, 
and  Jackson,  and  Calhoun,  and  Benton,  and  Wood- 
bury, with  others  of  national  renown,  ruled  the  Repub- 
lic with  noble  patriotism,  and  profound  statesmanship, 
and  stern  political  virtue.  Since  then  the  average 
congressman,  devoting  himself  to  personal  enrich- 
ment, partisan  scheming,  and  the  mercenary  lust  for 
office,  has  grown  "  small  by  degrees  and  beautifully 
less  ;  "  while  honorable  citizens  retire  in  disgust  from 
the  rude  jostlings  of  contending  parties,  unwilling  to 
act  with  those  whom  they  cannot  respect,  and  feeling 
that  "  the  post  of  honor  is  the  private  station."  It 
has  often  occurred  to  me,  how  few  of  the  scores  and 
hundreds  of  congressmen  that  I  have  known  ever 
originated,  much  less  carried  through,  any  measure 
calculated  to  benefit  his  fellow-creatures. 

How  different.  Sir,  has  been  the  career  of  our 
parental  friend,  whose  name  is  a  household  word  in 
every  American  heart,  and  whom  we  have  met  to- 
night to  honor !  He  has  always  been  distinguished 
for  his  sound,  useful  common-sense,  which  has  en- 
abled him  to  be  of  great  service  to  his  friends.  The 
man  with  every  sense  but  common-sense  is  as  help- 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  63 

less  as  a  child,  when  exposed  to  the  rub  and  bustle  of 
the  world  ;  it  is  the  philosopher  over  again,  who, 
when  the  vessel  in  which  he  was  embarked  was  about 
to  founder  at  sea,  having  read  much  in  books  of 
anchors  of  hope  and  anchors  of  safety,  but  knowing 
nothing  practically  of  their  use,  lashed  himself  to  the 
best  bovvcr,  and  then  smiled  in  lofty  pity  at  the  igno- 
rance of  the  poor  creatures  who  were  going  to  trust 
themselves  to  rafts  and  planks.  Colonel  Wilder  has 
been  prompted  by  good  sense  in  organizing  good 
works ;  and  with  rare  executive  ability  he  has  congre- 
gated large  masses  of  men,  and  raised  large  sums  of 
money,  for  the  support  of  some  great  pursuit.  He 
has  been  a  pioneer,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  a 
recruiting  sergeant,  for  many  invincible  armies.  As 
it  is  inscribed  on  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
in  memory  of  its  architect.  Lector^  si  monumentum 
requiris^  circumspice :  "  If  you  seek  his  monument, 
look  around;"  so  we  see  Colonel  Wilder's  monument 
around  us  here :  men  whom  he  recruited,  and  who 
have,  under  his  discipline,  become  centurions  in  the 
hosts  of  religion,  freemasonry,  agriculture,  horticul- 
ture, history,  the  arts,  and  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company. 

Ah  !  Mr.  President,  I  can  almost  see  some  of  the 
old  Past  Commanders  of  that  honored  corps  march 
into  this  room  with  their  bright  steel  breastplates, 
their  thick   coats  of  buff-leather,  and   their  helmets 


64  BANQUET   TO   THE 

crowned  with  scarlet  plumes,  to  congratulate  their 
successor,  Colonel  Wilder.  Following  them,  would 
come  those  who  fought  gallantly  in  the  Revolutionary- 
war,  in  blue  and  buff,  with  their  cocked  hats  and 
their  shirt-ruffles.  Next  we  should  see  those  who 
distinguished  themselves  in  the  supplementary  war 
with  Great  Britain  in  1812,  followed  by  those  who 
served  in  the  swamps  of  Florida,  and  those  who  bore 
the  stars  and  stripes  in  triumph  through  the  land  of 
the  Montezumas.  Then  would  come  those  brave 
men,  some  of  whom  served  under  Colonel  Wilder  in 
time  of  peace,  who  were  engaged  in  the  war  for  the 
suppression  of  the  Rebellion,  from  which  the  Union 
armies  came  marching  home  triumphantly,  without 
a  single  star  missing  from  their  colors  or  from  the 
national  escutcheon.  When  General  Augureau,  of 
France,  was  asked  what  was  wanting  to  add  to  the 
splendor  of  the  scene  at  the  coronation  of  the  First 
Napoleon,  he  replied,  "  Nothing  but  the  presence  of 
our  dead  heroes,  who  died  to  perpetuate  the  Govern- 
ment ! "  Would  that  we  could  be  honored  to-night 
with  the  presence  of  those  who  preceded  or  served 
with  Colonel  Wilder  in  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company,  but  who  now  sleep  in  the  soldier  s 
grave,  where  they  will  remain  until  the  last  trumpet 
shall  sound  their  reveille !  Colonel  Wilder  is,  Mr. 
President,  the  oldest  living  Past  Commander  of  our 
old  corps,  and  a  glorious  representative  of  his  prede- 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  65 

cessors  two  hundred  years  ago :  men  famed  in 
Church  and  State,  who  feared  God  and  kept  their 
powder  dry. 

The  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company, 
with  its  two  hundred  and  forty-five  years  of  service, 
greets  its  oldest  Past  Commander  with  love  to-night, 
and  presents  arms  !  Its  members  present,  with  pleas- 
ing emotions  knocking  hard  at  the  doors  of  their 
hearts,  wish  many  more  years  of  happiness  to  Colonel 
Wilder.  Appreciating  his  honesty,  his  truth,  his 
temperance,  his  courage,  his  patience,  his  forbear- 
ance, and  the  other  bright  virtues  which  shine  in  his 
character,  our  hopes  are  ever  clustered  around  him, 
and  our  good  wishes  will  ever  attend  him.  Indeed,  we 
are  tempted  to  say  to  him  to-night,  in  the  language  of 
the  old  Latins,  Esto  perpetua  :  "  Be  thou  eternal !  " 

Mr.  President,  I  am  confident  that  the  distinguished 
gentlemen  around  these  tables  will  long  remember 
to-night,  and  recall  with  pleasure  its  varied  homages 
to  Colonel  Wilder,  thankful  that  we  have  so  pure  a 
shrine,  so  bright  an  oracle,  as  the  common  property 
of  all  who  reverence  virtue,  admire  manhood,  or  aspire 
to  noble  deeds.  Succeeding  years  will  not  dim  the 
freshness  of  Colonel  Wilder's  fame ;  and  the  more  fre- 
quently we  drink  at  this  fountain,  the  sweeter  we  shall 
find  its  waters. 

"  You  may  break,  you  may  shatter  the  vase,  if  you  will, 
But  the  scent  of  the  roses  will  hang  round  it  still." 

5 


66  BANQUET   TO   THE 


General  Francis  A.  Walker,  the  President  of  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  responded  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Mr.  President,  —  A  biography  of  Colonel  Wilder 
would  necessarily  become,  in  a  great  measure,  the 
history  of  a  score  of  institutions  whose  foundations 
have  been  laid  by  his  hands,  or  with  his  personal 
co-operation.  Even  those  brief  references  to  his  life 
and  his  life's  work  which  are  appropriate  to  an  occa- 
sion like  this,  cannot  fail  to  array  before  our  minds 
many  of  the  most  active  and  influential  societies  of 
Boston,  of  Massachusetts,  of  New  England,  and  of 
the  United  States. 

It  must  be  interesting  to  every  observer,  it  must 
be  deeply  gratifying  to  our  revered  friend,  to  see 
the  representatives  of  such  great  and  various  and 
beneficent  institutions  crowding  this  board  to  offer 
their  tributes  of  gratitude,  respect,  and  affection  to 
the  sage,  philanthropist,  and  patriot,  whose  eighty- 
fifth  birthday  is  to-day  celebrated  amid  the  hearty 
good  wishes  of  thousands  for  his  long  continuance 
in  life,  health,  and  happiness. 

I  trust  that  not  the  least  useful  to  the  community, 
not  the  least  honorable  to  our  friend,  among  the 
many  institutions  at  whose  foundation  he  has   pre- 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  67 

sided,  and  to  whose  enlargement  he  has  contributed 
by  wise  counsel  and  generous  assistance,  is  that  on 
whose  behalf  I  am  called  to  respond :  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology. 

Colonel  Wilder  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most 
earnest  advocates  of  the  views  and  measures  which 
finally  led  to  the  establishment  of  this  school  of 
industrial  science.  As  early  as  1857,  before  the 
Back-Bay  lands  had  been  filled  up,  he  became  the 
chairman  of  a  committee  of  citizens  called  together 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  Conservatory  of  Arts 
and  Sciences  on  those  lands  ;  and  when,  later,  that 
idea  had  taken  more  definite  shape,  he  acted  as 
chairman  of  the  committee  which  drew  up  a  me- 
morial to  the  Legislature,  urging  the  adoption  of 
that  scheme  by  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  In  the 
following  year,  the  same  committee,  under  the  same 
earnest  and  public-spirited  chairman,  presented  an- 
other memorial  to  the  Legislature.  This  effort  was 
crowned  with  success,  resulting  in  the  charter  of  the 
Institute  of  Technology. 

In  the  act  of  incorporation,  which  passed  April  10, 
1 86 1,  Colonel  Wilder  was  named  as  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Trust.  He  became  one  of  the  vice-presi- 
dents of  the  new  organization,  and  continued  to  act 
in  that  capacity  until  the  office  was  abolished  in  the 
reorganization  which  took  place  some  years  ago  under 
an  amended  charter. 


68  BANQUET   TO   THE 

Through  all  the  early  efforts  to  attract  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Legislature  and  the  people  to  the  impor- 
tance of  industrial  and  art  education,  and  through 
the  severe  struggles  which  so  painfully  tried  the  cour- 
age and  the  faith  even  of  those  who  most  strongly  and 
ardently  believed  in  the  mission  of  the  Institute,  as 
well  as  through  the  happier  years  of  fruition,  while 
the  efforts  put  forth  in  the  days  of  darkness  and  de- 
spondency were  bearing  their  harvest  of  success  and 
fame.  Colonel  Wilder  was  through  all  one  of  the 
most  constant  of  the  members  of  the  government  in 
his  attendance ;  one  of  the  most  hopeful  in  his  views 
of  the  future  of  the  school ;  ever  a  wise  counsellor  and 
a  steadfast  ally. 

I  could  wish,  how  heartily  I  do  wish  it  I  can- 
not say,  that  the  first  President  of  the  Institute  of 
Technology,  the  illustrious  Rogers,  stood  here  in  this 
place,  on  this  occasion,  to  tell  how  much  he  and  his 
colleagues  were  indebted  to  our  venerable  friend  for 
his  services  in  the  inception  and  development  of  the 
Institute  of  Technology.  But  since  that  stately  and 
gracious  presence  has  passed  away,  it  becomes  the 
duty  of  his  successor  in  office,  though  not  in  merit 
or  in  fame,  to  respond  to  this  sentiment,  and  in  be- 
half of  the  Corporation  and  the  Faculty,  to  tender 
thanks  and  good  wishes  to  the  Hon.  Marshall  P. 
Wilder. 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  69 


M.  Denman  Ross,  Esq.,  in  behalf  of  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology,  responded  as  follows  :  — 

There  are  in  the  city  of  Boston  several  institutions 
which  owe  their  existence  almost  wholly  to  a  band  of 
workers  who  have  been  for  the  past  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury laboring  to  build  them  up  solely  for  the  public 
good.  Mr.  Wilder  has  been  among  the  foremost  of 
this  band.  He  is  a  man  "  born  to  lead  and  com- 
mand." In  all  the  enterprises  of  the  day  in  which 
he  has  taken  a  part,  his  fertile  genius  has  been  in- 
voked, and  has  greatly  characterized  the  matter  in 
hand. 

About  the  year  1857  there  was  a  movement  in  the 
city  of  Boston  to  increase  the  facilities  of  the  Boston 
Society  of  Natural  History,  and  to  create  a  Polytechnic 
and  a  Fine  Art  Institute.  The  Massachusetts  Hor- 
ticultural Society  was  also  seeking  to  find  space  for 
a  home.  I  was  a  member  of  a  self-constituted  com- 
mittee representing  the  several  interests  referred  to, 
who  called  on  Governor  Banks,  and  we  asked  him 
to  give  us  his  co-operation  in  influencing  the  Legis- 
lature then  in  session  to  set  apart,  or  reserve  from 
sale,  about  twenty  acres  of  the  space  on  the  Back  Bay 
in  the  city  of  Boston.  I  say  space  instead  of  land, 
for  the  reason  that  what  is  now  the  most  beautiful 


70  BANQUET   TO   THE 

part  of  the  city  was  then  covered  with  water,  in  many- 
places  twenty  feet  deep.  Our  purpose  was  to  secure 
ample  space  for  the  educational  institutions  which  the 
committee  represented,  the  most  prominent  at  that 
time  being  the  proposed  Polytechnic  Institute,  now 
called  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 
Governor  Banks  asked  us  what  axe  we  had  to  grind, 
and  our  reply  was,  "  The  broad-axe  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts,  your  Excellency ;  and  we  want  you 
with  the  Legislature  to  turn  the  grindstone." 

Our  zeal  was  somewhat  chilled,  but  we  were  not  dis- 
couraged by  the  Governor's  somewhat  adverse  attitude. 
We  soon  discovered  that  the  work  we  had  in  hand 
required  a  permanent  organization  of  our  volunteer 
committee;  and  in  our  search  for  a  leader  Marshall 
P.  Wilder  was  pointed  out  to  us  as  the  man  of  all 
others  to  swing  the  long-handled  broad-axe  of  the 
State,  and  direct  the  attention  of  the  Legislature  to 
the  justness  of  the  cause  we  represented.  It  was 
not  difficult  to  persuade  him  to  be  the  chairman  of 
the  so-called  Back  Bay  Reservation  Committee,  and 
his  quick  perception  of  the  great  future  of  this 
movement  enabled  him  to  broaden  our  plans.  His 
strong  faith  in  the  importance  of  the  project  inspired 
us  to  call  again  to  inform  his  Excellency  of  our 
determination  to  persevere ;  and  not  unlike  the  coon 
which  besfan  to  descend  from  the  tree  and  surrender 
as  soon  as  he  saw  that  David  Crockett  was  pointing 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  71 

his  gun,  the  Governor  surrendered,  but  exclaimed, 
"  What  a  mistake !  Mr.  Wilder  will,  unless  we 
check  him,  cover  the  whole  Back  Bay  with  an  Agri- 
cultural College  and  warehouses  for  his  specimens  in 
Pomology,  which  he  will  call  Museums." 

Our  leader  never  hesitated,  although  it  required 
four  years  to  convince  the  Legislature  of  the  impor- 
tance of  our  cause ;  but  Mr.  Wilder's  magnetic  power 
helped  to  enlist  such  men  as  Governor  Andrew, 
Professor  Wm.  B.  Rogers,  and  others.  He  worked, 
and  others  worked,  and  the  effort  was  crowned  with 
success. 

Mr.  Wilder's  characteristic  talent  and  persistent 
loyalty  to  the  cause  have  been  among  the  strongest 
elements  of  success  in  all  that  has  been  done  in  build- 
ing up  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  the  educational 
institutions  on  the  Back  Bay.  I  will  name  among 
those  coming  directly  under  his  creative  influence 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  and  the 
Boston  Society  of  Natural  History.  The  success 
attending  these  institutions  led  to  building  up  others ; 
and  now  we  have  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts, 
the  Harvard  Medical  School,  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  the  Mechanics  and  Manufac- 
turers' Institute,  and  the  Mechanics'  Charitable  Asso- 
ciation. We  shall  soon  have  the  Boston  Public 
Library  and  many  more  schools  of  general  usefulness. 
Millions  of  money  have  been  raised  and  invested  for 


72  BANQUET   TO    THE 

public  education,  which  could  only  have  been  done 
by  the  inspiration  of  such  men  as  Mr.  Wilder.  He 
is  universally  recognized  as  one  of  the  foremost  of 
the  standard-bearers  in  all  this  great  educational 
movement ;  and  one  evidence  of  the  vitality  of  this 
educational  current  is  the  quarter  of  a  million  of 
dollars  which  has  been  raised  as  a  memorial  fund  in 
honor  of  the  late  Professor  William  B.  Rogers,  the 
first  President  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology.  Mr.  Wilder  has  been  from  the  organ- 
ization of  this  institution  a  constant  attendant  on 
the  meetings  of  the  Government ;  and  to  this  day 
his  venerable  presence  encourages  and  animates 
deliberation. 

My  purpose,  Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  in 
calling  your  attention  to  what  seems  to  me  to  be 
wanting  as  a  link  in  the  history  of  the  life  of  our 
honored  friend.  Is  simply  that  you  may  be  led  to 
look  further  for  the  foot-prints  of  Mr.  Wilder;  and 
in  so  doing  you  will  see  the  wonderful  influence 
which  a  single  man  exercises,  when  he  takes  hold 
of  the  broad-axes  of  a  State  like  the  one  in  which 
we  live. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  73 


The  Hon.  Edward  S.  Tobey,  the  Postmaster  of  Boston, 
was  called  upon,  and  responded  as  follows :  — 

Mr.  President, —  You  are  aware  that  no  intima- 
tion whatever  has  been  made  that  any  remarks  would 
be  expected  from  me  on  this  occasion ;  and  when  I 
found  myself  most  agreeably  placed  at  table  between 
two  distinguished  Federal  officers,  I  ventured  to 
presume  that  the  audience  might  be  spared  the  in- 
fliction of  a  speech  by  me.  But  I  beg  to  assure 
you  that  I  esteem  it  both  an  honor  and  a  privilege 
to  participate  with  others  in  this  highly  appropriate 
recognition  of  the  public  services  and  personal  worth 
of  our  venerable  friend  and  guest. 

I  was  gratified  to  hear  him  give  special  promi- 
nence to  his  position  and  influence  as  a  merchant, 
in  comparison  with  his  official  connection  with  very 
many  of  the  noble,  philanthropic,  and  educational 
institutions  of  our  State  and  city,  and  trace  his  ability 
to  aid  in  sustaining  them  to  the  pecuniary  resources 
derived  from  his  mercantile  business :  a  fact,  as  you 
are  aware,  not  uncommon  in  the  experience  of  other 
merchants. 

Our  professional  friends  who  are  present,  will,  I 
trust,  pardon  me  if  I  venture  to  assume  that,  to  be 
an  intelligent  and  successful  merchant  in  conducting 


74  BANQUET   TO   THE 

certain  important  branches  of  business  on  an  extended 
scale,  requires  ability  equal  at  least  to  that  demanded 
by  either  of  the  so-called  learned  professions.  The 
lawyer  argues  his  client's  case,  while  the  responsibility 
of  its  decision  and  its  consequences  rest  with  either 
the  judge,  or  the  jury,  or  both ;  and  whatever  the 
result,  whether  adverse  or  otherwise,  his  fee  is  secure. 
The  merchant  must  gather  his  facts  often  too  super- 
ficially, make  his  logical  deductions,  and  arrive  at 
a  decision  in  the  silent  operations  of  the  mind,  to 
be  carried  into  effect  so  promptly  that  it  may  cost 
him  in  some  instances  the  loss  of  half,  or  possibly  the 
whole,  of  his  fortune.  Such  are  the  vicissitudes  of  a 
business  life,  that  a  very  small  per  cent  of  those  who 
engage  in  it  escape  failure  sooner  or  later,  and  pos- 
sibly the  loss  of  the  accumulations  of  a  lifetime.  We 
may  therefore  the  more  cordially  congratulate  our 
venerable  friend.  Colonel  Wilder,  as  being  one  of  the 
few  whose  successful  experience  has  followed  him 
so  near  to  the  closing  years  of  a  long  and  arduous 
life. 

Merchants  are,  and  always  have  been,  especially 
prominent  in  founding,  as  well  as  in  supporting  by 
their  liberal  benefactions,  philanthropic  and  educa- 
tional institutions,  as  well  as  in  relieving  the  wants 
of  their  less  favored  fellow-men.  They  are  also,  as 
is  well  known,  the  generous  patrons  of  the  fine  arts. 
With  all  these  great  public  interests.  Colonel  Wilder 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER. 


75 


has  ever  been  identified,  and  with  an  assiduity  so 
remarkable  as  to  suggest  the  impression  that  he  has 
long  acted  under  the  belief  which  may  well  animate 
each  of  us,  that  no  life  can  be  pleasing  to  God  that 
is  not  useful  to  man. 


76  BANQUET   TO   THE 


Aaron  H.  Bean,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Hamilton  Bank, 
was  called  upon,  and  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  It  is  with  great 
pleasure  that  I  respond  to  your  call.  You  have  re- 
ferred to  the  Hamilton  Bank  as  one  of  the  institu- 
tions with  which  our  honored  guest  has  been  long 
connected.  The  Bank  was  organized  on  the  13th 
day  of  February,  1832,  and  upon  the  first  list  of 
Directors  appears  the  name  of  Marshall  P.  Wilder; 
and  in  that  capacity  he  has  served  under  its  State 
and  National  organizations  uninterruptedly  for  a 
period  of  nearly  fifty-two  years,  and  is  the  sole 
survivor  of  that  distinguished  Board  of  Boston 
merchants. 

The  Directors  of  the  Hamilton  National  Bank, 
upon  hearing  that  it  was  proposed  by  numerous 
friends  to  celebrate  the  eighty-fifth  anniversary  of 
the  birthday  of  their  senior  associate,  took  early  offi- 
cial action,  and  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  Board 
appointed  the  President  and  Messrs.  S.  S.  Blanchard 
and  Henry  G.  Denny  a  Committee  to  attend  the 
festivities  and  join  in  the  congratulations  of  the 
occasion. 

With  this  official  authority  I  stand  here  with  my 
associates  in  the  presence  of  this  large  company,  to 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  'J'^ 

bear  witness  to  the  zeal  and  fidelity  of  our  venerable 
friend  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  as  a  director  of 
the  Bank  for  more  than  half  a  century ;  and  also  to 
bear  to  him  the  congratulations  of  each  member  of 
the  Board,  that  he  is  able  on  this,  the  eighty-fifth 
anniversary  of  his  birthday,  to  meet  around  the  fes- 
tive board,  with  mental  powers  unimpaired,  so  many 
of  his  associates  of  earlier  and  later  years,  and  also 
to  assure  him  of  their  undiminished  confidence  and 
respect. 

And,  Sir,  if  I  may  be  permitted  to  make  a  personal 
allusion,  I  wish  thus  publicly  to  thank  our  friend  for 
the  many  kind  words  and  acts  with  which  he  has 
cheered  me  in  my  various  duties  for  a  long  period  of 
years. 

Mr.  Chairman,  as  I  was  looking  over  the  pages 
of  a  valued  book  a  short  time  since,  I  read  a  sentence 
which  now  seems  to  me  so  appropriate  to  this  oc- 
casion, that  I  venture  to  repeat  it :  — 

"  The  oak-tree  was  once  an  acorn  under  the  ground,  then 
a  little  plant  in  the  turf  ;  now  it  stands  aloft,  a  full-grown 
oak.  So  a  good  old  age  grows  up  to  the  height  of  thoughts 
not  of  this  world.  It  is  always  shedding  ripe  fruits,  and 
every  beholder  is  the  better  even  for  looking  at  it." 


78  BANQUET   TO   THE 


Benjamin  F.  Stevens,  Esq.,  President  of  the  New 
England  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  responded  as 
follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  I  do  not  know- 
that  I  can  say  anything  in  addition  to  what  has  been 
said  of  the  distinguished  gentleman  whose  birthday 
we  are  honoring  this  evening;  but  I  desire  to  add 
my  tribute  to  the  value  of  his  great  public  as  well 
as  private  services  to  the  community  during  a  period 
of  more  than  half  a  century  of  active  industrial  life. 
The  world  knows  that  Marshall  P.  Wilder  has  been 
a  moving  spirit  in  whatever  he  has  undertaken, 
especially  in  developing  and  maturing  the  great  agri- 
cultural interests  of  the  country ;  at  the  same  time 
following  a  commercial  career,  fairly  earning  therein 
the  reputation  of  "  an  honorable  and  upright  mer- 
chant." 

To  have  been  connected  with  Colonel  Wilder  in 
the  management  of  the  New  England  Mutual  Life 
Insurance  Company,  in  w^hich  he  has  been  a  director 
for  nearly  forty  years,  is  to  me  a  pleasurable  record. 
He  has  followed  the  fortunes  of  that  institution 
through  infancy,  youth,  and  mature  age,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  its  finance  and  other  sub-committees  of  its 
trustees. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  79 

If  I  were  to  suggest  a  sentiment,  Mr.  Chairman, 
it  would  be  that  our  friend  and  counsellor,  our 
Nestor,  may  enjoy  the  period  of  life  allotted  to  him, 
and  continue  to  be  as  he  ever  has  been,  a  "  man  of 
the  people." 


So  BANQUET   TO   THE 


The  Hon.  Charles  R.  Train,  a  Director  of  the  Home 
Savings  Bank,  responded  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  —  When  Lafayette  visited  New 
England,  and  assisted  in  laying  the  corner-stone  of 
the  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  I  was  present,  a  child  in 
my  father's  arms.  Young  as  I  was,  I  well  remember 
the  appearance  of  the  nation's  guest,  and  the  aston- 
ishing enthusiasm  with  which  he  was  greeted,  as  at 
the  bidding  of  the  matchless  orator  of  the  occasion 
he  arose  and  bowed  his  emotions  to  that  vast  con- 
gregation. It  was  a  lesson  never  to  be  forgotten, 
teaching  the  measure  of  a  people's  appreciation  of 
great  public  service,  and  the  value  of  a  manhood 
compacted  with  usefulness,  integrity,  and  honor. 

Our  guest  to-night  was  at  that  time  in  the  early 
blossom  of  a  vigorous  manhood,  and  now  bears  with 
him  substantially  the  memories  of  this  century.  His 
growth,  to  borrow  an  idea,  has  not  been  like  that  of 
the  poplar  and  other  rapidly  growing  trees,  but  like 
that  of  the  oak,  in  a  period  of  eighty-five  years 
outstripping  them  all,  maintaining  its  dignity,  and 
dispensing  its  blessings  to  a  grateful  nation. 

For  thirty  years  I  have  enjoyed  his  society  and 
been  benefited  by  his  counsels,  and  in  common  with 
all  our  people  have  learned  to  love  and  venerate  him  as 
a  friend,  to  esteem  him  as  a  public  benefactor,  to  feel 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  8l 

his  presence  a  blessing  and  his  advice  a  benediction. 
But  it  is  not  of  his  character,  influenced  by  the  pe- 
culiar tastes  which  he  has  so  successfully  cultivated, 
and  which  have  given  him  such  a  world-wide  reputa- 
tion, that  I  wish  to  speak,  but  of  his  faithfulness  in 
every  relation  which  he  has  held  to  his  fellow-men.  Let 
me  speak  of  one,  of  which  I  know  whereof  I  affirm. 

In  February,  1870,  the  Home  Savings  Bank  was 
organized,  with  Colonel  Wilder  as  its  first  Vice-Presi- 
dent :  a  position  which  he  has  held  in  storm  and 
sunshine  ever  since.  We  were  told  by  the  older  banks 
in  the  city  that  if  our  deposits  were  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  we  should  do 
well.  At  the  close  of  that  year  we  had  received  and 
invested  a  little  over  one  million  dollars.  I  need  not 
say  to  this  audience  how  much  of  the  confidence  of 
the  public  in  this  institution  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
Colonel  Wilder  was  a  working  and  not  an  orna- 
mental officer.  In  six  years  we  had  accumulated 
over  seven  millions  of  dollars.  When  the  storm 
came  which  wrecked  so  many  of  our  savings  banks, 
the  Home,  through  the  hostility  of  an  individual 
then  connected  with  the  public  press,  but  for  several 
years  past,  and  now,  a  fugitive  from  justice,  was 
placed  in  the  van,  and  received  the  first  shock  of  the 
crisis.  Colonel  Wilder,  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
the  condition  of  the  Bank,  was  instant,  in  season  and 
out  of   season,  in  attendance  upon  his  duties ;  and 

6 


82  BANQUET   TO    THE 

many  of  the  depositors  have  Uved  to  bless  him  for  his 
sympathy  in  their  distress,  and  for  the  sound  advice 
by  following  which  their  little  all  was  preserved. 

Thanks  to  Colonel  Wilder  and  his  associates,  the 
Bank  survived ;  and  its  books  show  that  in  the  thir- 
teen years  of  its  life  it  has  received  over  eighteen 
millions  of  deposits,  has  paid  out  about  two  millions 
in  dividends,  averaging  SyVV  P^^  cent,  and  that  no 
depositor  has  suffered  a  loss  by  any  misconduct  of 
the  Bank ;  and  it  has  to-day  a  deposit  of  nearly  two 
millions,  and  a  surplus  of  over  two  hundred  and 
thirty-one  thousand  dollars.  All  this  is  due  to  the 
faithful  and  persistent  labors  of  Colonel  Wilder  and 
his  colleagues ;  and  in  behalf  of  the  Trustees,  and 
of  the  poor  people  who  have  been  benefited  thereby, 
I  present  to  him  the  assurance  of  our  profoundest 
gratitude. 

Such  services  as  these,  the  only  reward  for  which 
is  the  consciousness  of  well-doing,  entitle  our  guest  to 
have  his  name  enrolled  with  the  public  benefactors 
of  the  State. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  83 


William  D.  Coolidge,  Esq.,  Past  Grand  Master  of  the 
Grand  Lodge  of  Freemasons  of  Massachusetts,  spoke  as 
follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  I  desire  to  say 
a  few  words  to  my  dear  friend  and  brother,  our  hon- 
ored guest.  I  will  only  detain  you  a  few  moments, 
to  express  my  happiness  in  being  with  you  on  this 
occasion,  uniting  most  heartily  in  every  expression 
of  appreciation  and  affection  which  has  been  uttered  ; 
they  have  been  as  numerous  as  the  varied  positions 
which  you  have  filled  so  fully  and  so  usefully  in  a 
long  and  eventful  life. 

This  has  been  a  most  fitting,  sincere,  and  merited 
tribute ;  because  in  you  were  found  the  warm  heart 
and  the  active  will  to  use  the  means  and  ability  with 
which  God  has  blessed  you,  to  benefit  your  fellow- 
men  and  the  age  in  which  we  live,  making  you 
the  instrument  in  his  hands  of  lasting  benefit  to  the 
race,  inspiring  them  with  the  priceless  "  love  of  the 
beautiful." 

My  Brother,  our  business  relations  have  not  called 
us  much  together ;  but  it  has  been  my  happy  privilege 
to  meet  you  with  loving  friends  in  the  sacred  retire- 
ment of  your  beautiful  home,  where  filial  affection 
and  devoted  love  and  care  crowned  your  happiness, 


84  BANQUET   TO   THE 

and  met  the  ready  response  of  the  loving  and  devoted 
husband  and  father.  But  I  must  not  dwell  on  this, 
and  I  only  speak  of  it  as  the  crowning  glory  of  a 
complete  life. 

My  Brother,  when  in  i860,  by  the  partial  love  and 
confidence  of  my  brethren,  I  was  elected  Grand 
Master  of  Masons  in  Massachusetts,  it  became  my 
duty  to  select  from  among  them  one  who  united 
consummate  judgment  with  a  wise  discretion  and 
executive  ability,  to  fill  the  office  of  Deputy  Grand 
Master ;  and  as  my  confidential  counsellor  and  ad- 
viser, you  did  me  and  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Massa- 
chusetts the  honor  to  accept  that  appointment  in  the 
trying  period  of  the  opening  of  the  late  war,  and 
you  won  for  yourself  their  lasting  respect  and  broth- 
erly affection.  And  so,  my  Brother,  I  bring  to  you 
to-night  the  congratulations  of  the  whole  Fraternit}^ 
in  Massachusetts,  and  their  best  wishes  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  that  happiness  to  yourself  which  you 
have  so  liberally  bestowed  on  others,  and  which  a 
grateful  community  acknowledges.  I  close  these  re- 
marks with  my  own  sincere  wish  that  your  valuable 
life  may  be  continued  in  comfort  and  happiness  till 
the  message  is  sent  to  "  come  up  higher." 


HON.   MARSHALL  P.  WILDER.  85 


The  Hon.  Charles  L.  Flint,  of  the  Massachusetts  Agri- 
cultural Club,  responded  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen,  —  It  hardly  be- 
comes me,  being  about  the  youngest  of  the  jolly  set 
of  boys  known  as  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
Club,  to  presume  to  speak  as  their  representative. 

It  is  now  nearly  forty-four  years  since  a  "  picked 
company,"  the  leaders  of  men  in  horticultural  and 
agricultural  pursuits,  appreciating  the  charms  as  well 
as  the  solid  advantages  of  social  intercourse,  met 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  this  distinguished  Club. 
Colonel  Wilder  and  the  genial  and  popular  pro- 
prietor of  the  celebrated  Weld  Farm  are  the  only 
survivors  of  the  choice  spirits  who  met  around  that 
social  and  festive  board.  Now,  the  members  of  that 
Club  are  more  familiar,  perhaps,  with  the  inner  life, 
the  buoyant  and  indomitable  spirits  of  their  Presi- 
dent, and  the  graceful  and  jaunty  way  in  which  he 
wears  the  mantle  of  old  age,  than  some  others  who 
see  him  from  a  greater  distance.  We  sit  by  his 
side,  listen  to  his  perennial  wit  and  his  sparkling 
and  ready  repartees,  till  it  becomes  rather  difficult 
to  realize  that  he  is  anything  but  a  boy  like  our- 
selves. 

To  be  sure,  we  appreciate  his  record,  and  take  the 
greatest  delight  in  recounting  his  brilliant  and  honor- 


86  BANQUET  TO   THE 

able  achievements ;  that  is  how  he  came  to  be  chosen 
as  our  leader.  The  boys  all  saw  that  few  men  in 
our  community  had  made  a  more  striking  or  a  more 
durable  mark  than  Colonel  Wilder ;  that  few  had  held 
more  important  public  positions  or  sustained  them- 
selves more  honorably  in  them,  through  so  long  a 
course  of  years ;  that  it  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  few 
of  their  comrades  to  initiate  so  many  beneficent  pub- 
lic enterprises  which  have  enured  to  the  welfare  of 
the  people  among  whom  they  have  lived. 

Well,  Sir,  we  think  we  have  done  something  to 
preserve  his  youthful  freshness,  and  to  keep  alive 
his  keen  relish  for  the  social  side  of  life ;  and  that, 
I  take  it,  is  the  real  secret  of  a  happy,  a  cheerful, 
and  a  delightful  old  age. 

I  recollect  that  many  years  since  I  had  to  read  and 
study  two  charming  essays,  written  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years  ago  by  Cicero,  the  renowned,  the  eloquent 
and  silver-tongued  orator  and  statesman  of  Rome, 
one  upon  Friendship,  the  other  upon  Old  Age ;  and 
the  sweet  and  genial  philosophy  of  those  papers  has 
been  something  of  a  consolation  to  me  all  my  life. 
What  is  there  in  the  poetry  or  the  prose  of  man's  life 
on  earth  more  lovely  or  more  charming  than  a  quiet, 
contented,  and  dignified  old  age,  cheered  by  the 
friendship  of  the  wise  and  good  ?  And  why  should 
any  rational  or  sensible  being  dread  the  approach  of 
old  age,  or  try  to  hide  from  himself  or  others  that  he 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  87 

is  advanced  in  years  ?  If  goodness  has  crowned  his 
days,  and  the  harvests  of  successive  years  have  been 
garnered  in  the  mind  as  a  well-filled  storehouse,  and 
the  love  of  children  and  grandchildren  throws  its 
arms  around  him  or  climbs  his  knees  "  the  envied 
kiss  to  share,"  and  hope  opens  the  portals  of  heaven 
on  his  vision,  and  his  soul  is  at  peace,  like  a  fore- 
taste of  the  rest  that  awaits  him  at  the  end  of  his 
pilgrimage,  why  should  not  old  age  be  the  happiest, 
the  loveliest,  the  cosiest  season  of  the  life  on  earth  ? 
We  are  apt  to  forget  that  the  heart  never  grows 
old,  and  that  out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life. 
The  soul  never  grows  old,  and  the  soul  is  the  man. 
We  know  that  this  mortal  frame  of  ours  is  not  the 
thing  that  is  to  be,  and  not  even  the  thing  that  is, 
if  we  are  to  judge  by  the  power  to  be,  to  do,  to  suffer, 
and  to  enjoy ;  for  we  know  that  the  real  life  of  man 
is  the  soul,  and  that  that  is  what  loves,  learns,  hopes, 
rejoices  in  the  smile  of  God  and  friends,  and  lives 
the  most  when  it  is  freed  from  these  trammels  of 
the  body. 

We  all  recognize  Colonel  Wilder  as  a  prominent 
public  benefactor.  If  he  had  done  nothing  more 
than  to  introduce  many  new  fruits  and  flowers,  and 
to  multiply  new  varieties  by  hybridization,  he  would 
have  laid  the  community  under  great  obligations  to 
him.  But  his  range  of  activity  has  been  far  wider. 
A  large  part  of  the  beauty,  the  cultured  taste  and 


88  BANQUET   TO   THE 

the  luxuriance  of  landscape  gardening  that  clusters 
around  and  adorns  the  thousands  of  homesteads 
about  Boston,  through  a  constantly  widening  radius, 
is  due  directly  or  indirectly  to  his  influence  and  in- 
spiration. And  now,  at  the  venerable  age  of  eighty- 
five,  from  the  quiet  retreat  of  his  happy  home,  he  can 
look  back  upon  a  long  life  well  spent,  and  out  upon 
a  region  smiling  with  loveliness,  with  a  consciousness 
that  he  is  surrounded  by  a  host  of  admiring  and  de- 
voted friends  who  realize  and  appreciate  the  results 
of  his  labors  and  the  powerful  impetus  which  his  per- 
sonal presence  gave  to  the  spirit  of  improvement, 
thirty,  forty,  fifty  years  ago. 

On  behalf  of  the  Agricultural  Club,  we  wish 
him  still  many  more  years  of  happiness  and  useful 
activity. 


Note. — Messrs.  Francis  A.  Walker,  M.  Denivl'VN  Ross,  Charles 
L.  Flint,  Benjamin  F.  Stevens,  and  Charles  R.  Train  were  unable 
to  remain  until  the  end  of  the  Banquet,  and  kindly  sent  to  the  Com- 
mittee the  substance  of  what  they  intended  to  say,  as  reported  in 
preceding  pages. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  89 


At  the  conclusion  of  the  speaking,  the  company  rose,  and 
as  a  parting  ceremony  sang  the  following  lines  from  Burns's 
song  of  Auld  Lang  Syne :  — 

"  Should  auld  acquaintance  be  forgot, 
And  never  brought  to  min'? 
Should  auld  acquaintance  be  forgot, 
And  days  o'  lang  syne  ? 

For  auld  lang  syne,  my  dear, 

For  auld  lang  syne. 
We  '11  tak'  a  cup  o'  kindness  yet, 
For  auld  lang  syne. 

"  And  here  's  a  hand,  my  trusty  fier. 
And  gie  's  a  hand  o'  thine ; 
And  we  '11  tak'  a  right  guid-willie  waught, 
For  auld  lang  syne. 

For  auld  lang  syne,  my  dear, 

For  auld  lang  syne, 
We  '11  tak'  a  cup  o'  kindness  yet, 
For  auld  lang  syne." 


LETTER   OF   INVITATION. 


At  the  suggestion  of  numerous  friends,  a  Dinner 
in  honor  of  the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  to  cele- 
brate the  anniversary  of  his  eighty-fifth  birthday, 
will  be  given  at  the  Parker  House,  September  2 2d, 
at  3  o'clock  p.  M.,  at  which  you  are  cordially  invited 
to  be  present. 

CHAS.   H.  B.   BRECK,  ^ 

JOHN   C.   HOVEY,  )-  Committee. 

ROBERT   MANNING,  J 


92  BANQUET   TO   THE 


LETTERS   IN   REPLY  TO  THE  INVITATION    OF 
THE   COMMITTEE. 


Letter  of  the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop. 

Brookline,  Mass.,  17th  Sept.,  1883. 
Dear  Sir,  —  Your  obliging  invitation  of  the  loth 
inst.  has  awaited  my  return  from  a  visit  to  my  grand- 
children at  Lenox.  I  thank  you  for  including  me 
among  those  who  would  gladly  pay  a  tribute  of  re- 
spect to  our  excellent  friend,  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  on 
his  eighty-fifth  birthday.  I  have  known  him  inti- 
mately for  a  full  half  of  his  long  pilgrimage,  and 
every  year  has  added  to  my  impressions  of  his  ability 
and  usefulness.  His  services  to  Horticulture  and 
Agriculture  have  been  invaluable.  No  other  man 
has  done  so  much  for  our  fields  and  gardens  and 
orchards.  He  has  distinguished  himself  in  many 
other  lines  of  life,  and  his  relations  to  the  Legisla- 
ture of  Massachusetts  and  to  the  Historic  Genealog- 
ical Society  will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  But  his 
name  will  have  its  most  enduring  and  most  enviable 
association  with  the  flowers  and  fruits  for  whose  cul- 
ture he  was  foremost  in  striving,  both  by  precept  and 
example.     He  deserves  a  grateful   remembrance  as 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  93 

long  as  a  fine  pear  is  relished  or  a  brilliant  bouquet 
admired. 

I  regret  that  it  will  not  be  in  my  power  to  be  with 
you  and  with  him  on  the  2  2d  inst,  and  can  only  beg 
you  to  offer  him  my  hearty  congratulations  on  the 
occasion. 

Believe  me,  dear  sir,  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

Robert  C.  Winthrop. 

C.  H.  B.  Breck,  Esq. 


Letter  of  his  Excellency,  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  Governor  of 
Massachusetts. 

Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts, 
Executive  Department, 

Boston,  Sept.  15,  1883. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledsfe 
your  courteous  invitation  to  attend  a  dinner  on  the 
occasion  of  the  remembrance  of  the  eighty-fifth 
birthday  of  the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder. 

How  deeply  I  regret  that  I  cannot  be  present,  you 
will  see  from  the  fact  — 

First,  that  he  is  a  citizen  of  New  Hampshire; 
that  he,  with  myself,  came  to  Massachusetts  from 
New  Hampshire,  and  we  New  Hampshire  men  are 
somewhat  clannish. 

Second,  from  my  admiration  for  his  long  and  use- 
ful life ;  for  the  labors  to  which  we  owe  very  many 


94  BANQUET   TO   THE 

of  the  substantial  improvements  in  the  agricultural 
condition  of  Massachusetts. 

Third,  he  has  sustained  by  his  efforts  and  foster- 
ing care  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  Society. 

Lastly,  and  above  all,  for  the  admiration  I  have, 
and  should  be  glad  to  testify,  to  a  man  of  sterling 
integrity  and  of  culture,  who  now  has  reason  to  re- 
joice in  the  appreciation  of  all  his  fellow-citizens  for 
his  industrious,  noble,  and  well-spent  life. 

A  previous  engagement  away  from  Boston,  which 
cannot  well  be  shunned  or  avoided,  renders  my  pres- 
ence impossible ;  which  your  honored  guest  will  par- 
don to  me,  I  am  sure,  because  it  is  in  the  interest  of 
agriculture. 

Give  him  my  deepest  sensibilities,  and  believe  me, 
personally. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Benjamin  F.  Butler. 

Chas.  H.  B.  Breck,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass. 


Letter  of  the  Hon.  George  B.  Loring,  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  the  Departme7it  of  Agriculture. 

Salem,  Sept.  13,  1883. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Breck,  —  I  regret  that  engagements 

which  I  cannot  avoid  or  postpone  will  prevent  my 

accepting  your  polite  invitation  to  the  dinner  to  be 

given  on  the  2  2d  inst.,  to  celebrate  the  anniversary 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  95 

of  the  eighty-fifth  birthday  of  the  Hon.  Marshall  P. 
Wilder.  Colonel  Wilder's  career,  from  his  youth  to 
the  venerable  old  age  which  endears  him  to  all  who 
know  him,  has  been  so  useful  and  honorable  that  not 
his  friends  only,  but  the  entire  community  in  which 
he  lives  may  well  pay  him  a  full  tribute  of  respect 
and  admiration.  It  is  with  pride  and  satisfaction 
that  the  business  associations  of  the  city  of  Boston 
can  point  to  him  as  a  representative  of  that  mercan- 
tile integrity  which  gives  that  city  its  distinguished 
position  among  the  great  commercial  centres  of  the 
world.  His  early  intimate  association  with  those 
powerful  and  distinguished  men  who  have  given  a 
lustre  to  Massachusetts  which  no  attacks  have  yet 
bedimmed,  cannot  be  forgotten  by  those  who  hold 
dear  the  names  of  Webster  and  Everett,  and  their 
distinguished  associates,  who  always  came  at  his  call 
to  encourage  and  elevate  the  great  industry  to  which 
he  has  devoted  all  his  leisure  hours.  As  the  pioneer 
in  all  the  most  beautiful  and  elaborate  modes  of 
cultivation,  by  which  the  earth  has  brought  forth  an 
abundant  harvest  of  whatever  gratifies  man's  most 
refined  tastes,  he  will  always  be  held  dear  so  long 
as  the  flowers  of  the  garden,  and  the  choicest  fruits 
of  the  vineyard  and  the  orchard  add  their  beauty 
and  luxuriance  to  our  homes. 

Not  a  public   park,  not  a   flower-garden,   not  an 
orchard,  not  a  field  of  small  fruits,  not  a  vineyard. 


96  BANQUET   TO    THE 

but  bears  the  marks  of  his  untiring  efforts  for  every 
horticultural  improvement  known  to  us,  and  of  his 
devotion  to  the  pomological  development  of  our 
country. 

His  devoted  labor  for  the  development  of  Amer- 
ican agriculture  formed  of  itself  one  of  the  most 
interesting  chapters  in  the  history  of  that  important 
industry.  When  he  began  his  work  of  encouraging 
the  farmer  in  his  toil,  agriculture  was  in  a  primitive 
condition  everywhere,  and  confined,  in  this  country, 
to  comparatively  circumscribed  limits.  In  Massa- 
chusetts the  influence  of  a  few  liberal  and  energetic 
societies  had  been  sensibly  felt,  it  is  true,  and  the 
introduction  of  improved  machinery  and  new  and 
valuable  crops  had  met  with  hearty  encouragement. 
But  neither  for  Massachusetts  nor  for  that  wide- 
spread agricultural  region  from  which  are  now  drawn 
the  great  supplies  for  our  home  market  and  the  main 
support  of  our  foreign  commerce,  had  any  adequate 
system  of  tillage  and  harvesting  been  adopted ;  nor 
had  the  public  mind  been  roused  to  a  full  un- 
derstanding of  the  importance  of  a  well-educated, 
scientific  management  of  land,  and  a  well-conducted 
increase  and  care  of  our  flocks  and  herds.  The 
great  inventions  of  agricultural  machinery  which 
make  the  special  farming  of  the  East  profitable  and 
the  wholesale  farming  of  the  West  possible,  were  but 
just  commenced,  and  had  hardly  made  a  step  towards 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  97 

their  present  state  of  perfection.  The  whole  system 
of  aofricultural  education  and  investigation  as  now 
conducted  was  unknown.  There  was  not  an  agricul- 
tural college  in  existence,  boards  of  agriculture  were 
unknown,  the  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture was  not  thouoht  of.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
Colonel  Wilder  entered  upon  his  judicious  and  ear- 
nest advocacy  of  agricultural  improvement  and  prog- 
ress. Every  inventor  found  in  him  an  encouraging 
friend.  As  President  of  the  United  States  Agricul- 
tural Society  his  influence  was  felt  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  By  his  persuasion 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  was  induced  to  organize 
and  endow  her  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  whose 
long  career  has  won  the  respect  of  all  men,  and  whose 
effect  has  been  universally  felt.  And  to  him,  of  all 
men  in  this  Commonwealth,  we  are  indebted  for  the 
establishment  of  a  well-organized  Agricultural  Col- 
lege, almost  the  pioneer  in  these  institutions,  and 
whose  educational  work  has  been  diligently  and 
wisely  pursued.  There  have  been  many  enthusiastic 
and  devoted  friends  of  agriculture  in  this  country, 
but  there  has  been  no  one  man  who  has  exercised 
so  long-continued,  untiring,  and  inspiring  influence 
as  has  Colonel  Wilder.  His  name  is  connected  with 
the  choicest  products  of  our  soil,  and  will  be  remem- 
bered so  long  as  man's  love  of  nature,  and  her  won- 
derful   luxuriance    and    beauty    shall    endure.     His 

7 


98  BANQUET   TO   THE 

memory  will  be  cherished  by  all  who  realize  that  one 
of  our  highest  duties  is  to  adorn  and  beautify  our 
homes,  and  by  all  who  look  upon  a  long  and  hon- 
orable life  crowned  with  a  happy  old  age  as  one  of 
the  most  precious  gifts  bestowed  upon  man. 
Truly  your  friend  and  servant, 

George  B.  Loring. 

Chas.  H.  B.  Breck,  Esq.,  Boston. 


Letter  of  the  Hon.    William  Claflin,  Ex-Governor  of 
Massachusetts. 

Boston,  Sept.  22,  1883. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  It  is  with  sincere  regret  that  I 
am  obliged  to  decline  the  very  kind  invitation  of  the 
Committee  to  join  your  many  friends  in  congratulat- 
ing you  upon  the  return  of  your  birthday. 

It  is  allotted  to  few  men  to  greet  the  morning  sun 
at  the  age  of  eighty-five ;  and  to  fewer  still,  in  comfort- 
able health,  to  gather  at  the  social  board  their  asso- 
ciates in  business,  in  society,  in  church,  and  in  those 
public  enterprises  which  tend  to  build  up  a  community 
in  its  noblest  and  most  enduring  form. 

For  half  a  century  your  name  has  given  strength 
to  the  best  aspirations  of  the  people,  and  your  pres- 
ence has  been  welcomed  by  the  trusted  leaders  of 
public  opinion  in  their  deliberations  for  the  general 
welfare.     The  retrospect  must  be  most  gratifying  as 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.   WILDER.  99 

you  survey  the  wonderful  events  through  which  you 
have  passed,  and  remember  the  distinguished  men 
who  have  been  your  companions  in  public  and 
private  life.  Be  assured  that  those  who  meet  you 
on  this  glad  occasion  represent  the  general  feeling  of 
the  people  of  the  State,  in  their  appreciation  of  your 
personal  worth  and  your  devotion  to  the  high  trusts 
committed  to  your  care.  Your  friends  everywhere 
rejoice  in  your  lengthened  life,  and  trust  that  many 
years  may  be  added  to  it,  enabling  you  to  gladden 
their  hearts  often  by  your  cheerful  presence  and  wise 
counsel. 

With  sincere  thanks  for  your  remembrance  on  this, 
as  well  as  on  many  other  occasions  of  the  deepest 
interest,  I  am 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

William  Claflin. 

The  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder. 


Letter  of  the  Hon.  yohn  D.  Long,  Ex-Governor  of 
Massachusetts. 

HiNGHAM,  Sept.  II,  1883. 
Dear  Mr.  Breck,  —  My  engagements  prevent  my 
attending  the  dinner  to  be  given  to  Mr.  Wilder  on  the 
2 2d  inst,  but  I  cannot  forbear  to  express  my  great 
respect  for  him,  my  appreciation  of  his  long  and 
honorable  life,  and  my  good  wishes  for  its  happy 
and   honored    continuance.       He    has    adorned    the 


lOO  BANQUET   TO   THE 

Commonwealth  in  many  positions  and  rendered  her 
useful  and  beneficent  service.  I  can  think  of  no 
more  gratifying  spectacle  than  such  a  noble  old  age, 
ripe  and  sweet  and  fair  as  the  autumn  fruits  to  the 
perfection  of  which  he  has  so  greatly  contributed. 

Very  truly  yours, 

John  D.  Long. 


Letter  of  the  Hon.    Thomas  Talbot,  Ex-Govemor  of 
Massachusetts. 

BiLLERiCA,  Sept.  i8,  1883. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  that  I  cannot  be  present  at 
the  interesting  anniversary  to  which  you  refer  in 
your  invitation  of  the  loth  inst.  A  business  connec- 
tion of  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  led  me 
to  have  a  high  respect  and  regard  for  the  recipient 
of  your  kindness  on  the  present  occasion. 

The  great  public  services  of  the  Hon.  Marshall  P. 
Wilder,  especially  in  regard  to  the  development  of 
the  agricultural  and  horticultural  interests  of  the 
country,  should  pass  his  name  down  to  posterity  as 
a  public  benefactor  whose  great  services  are  remem- 
bered with  gratitude  by  the  State  and  Nation. 

May  many  anniversaries  come  and  go  before  he 
is  called  to  his  reward ! 

Yours  very  truly, 

Thomas  Talbot. 

Chas.  H.  B.  Breck,  Esq. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  lOI 


Letter  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  M.  D. 

Beverly  Farms,  Mass.,  Sept.  14,  1883. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  am  sorry  that  it  will  not  be  in 
my  power  to  be  present  at  the  dinner  to  be  given 
on  the  2 2d,  to  celebrate  the  eighty-fifth  birthday  of 
the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder. 

As  to  the  "  few  lines  "  you  are  pleased  to  suggest,  I 
must  remind  you  that  I  consider  myself  an  Emeritus 
in  that  line  of  business,  as  well  as  an  Emeritus  Pro- 
fessor; not  for  the  merit  of  any  lines  I  may  have 
written,  but  for  the  number  of  them.  But  my  heart 
is  always  on  duty,  and  it  prompts  me  to  send  my 
best  and  warmest  wishes  to  the  venerable  and  ven- 
erated friend  who  has  outlived  the  fruits  of  four- 
score seasons,  and  is  still  ripening  as  if  his  life  were 
all  summer. 

Believe  me,  dear  sir,  very  truly  yours, 

O.  W.  Holmes. 

Charles  H.  B.  Breck,  Esq. 


Letter  of  the  Hon.  Martin  P.  Kennard,  Assistant  Treasurer 
of  the  United  States  at  Boston. 

Brookline,  Sept.  21,  1883. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  seriously  regret  that  an  imperative 
claim  upon  me  elsewhere  will  deprive  me  of  the  plea- 
sure of   joining  in  your  graceful  compliment  to  the 


I02  BANQUET   TO   THE 

Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder.  My  recollections  of  his 
mercantile  prominence,  his  probity,  his  ever  active 
public  spirit,  his  patriotism,  and  his  peaj^s,  run  back 
to  my  juvenile  days.  And  I  especially  regret  my 
absence  as  I  recall  his  agreeable  personality  during 
fifteen  years  of  my  own  active  business  life,  when  with 
a  small  suburban  coterie,  who  were  compelled  regu- 
larly to  dine  in  town,  through  hard  times  and  through 
war-times,  he  presided  at  the  table  spread  for  us, 
always  entertaining,  always  happy,  and  all-ways  Chris- 
tian, "  with  kindness  for  all,  with  malice  towards 
none."  Nine  of  these  years  we  met  at  the  old 
Bromfield  House,  and  six  of  them  at  the  Tremont. 
Franklin  Pierce,  John  A.  Andrew,  Isaac  O.  Barnes, 
George  S.  Hillard,  Caleb  Cushing,  David  Nevins, 
James  T.  Fields,  Waldo  Maynard,  Selden  Crockett, 
who  have  passed  beyond  the  curtain,  and  many 
others  as  well  known,  both  of  the  living  and  the 
dead,  were  then  sometimes  there  with  us ;  and  at 
your  table  to-morrow  the  pleasant  aroma  of  those 
memories  will  surely  mingle  with  that  of  your  flow- 
ers and  your  laurels.  I  beg  to  offer  my  best  wishes 
for  the  occasion,  and  invoke  for  our  venerable  guest 
still  many  years  of  felicity,  unclouded  by  infirmity  or 
by  sorrow. 

Faithfully  yours, 

M.  P.  Kennard. 

C.  H.  B.  Breck,  Esq.,  Chairman. 


HON.   MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  103 


Letter  of  the  Hon.  Francis  W.  Bird,  President  of 
the  Bird  Club. 

East  Walpole,  Nov.  30,  1883. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  that  I  was  obliged  to  leave 
the  hall  early  when  the  friends  of  the  Hon.  Marshall 
P.  Wilder  were  celebrating  the  eighty-fifth  anniver- 
sary of  his  birth.  I  should  have  been  glad  to  say 
a  few  words  there  in  testimony  of  my  high  regard 
for  my  ancient  friend,  and  of  my  admiration  for  his 
valuable  services  to  various  good  causes  during  a 
long  life. 

I  flatter  myself  that  I  have  a  special  right  to 
speak  in  praise  of  Colonel  Wilder's  public  work 
for  nearly  forty  years;  for  I  think  I  had  a  good 
deal  to  do  with  preventing  his  entering  political 
life  instead  of  engaging  in  those  departments  in 
which  he  has  been  so  eminently  useful.  After  a 
sharp  contest  in  the  Whig  legislative  caucus  in  1848, 
Edward  L.  Keyes,  of  Dedham,  was  nominated  over 
Colonel  Wilder,  as  Executive  Councillor ;  and  after 
an  equally  sharp  contest  in  the  legislative  conven- 
tion, Mr.  Keyes  was  elected.  I  am  afraid  that  my 
personal  relations  with  my  brilliant  but  erratic  friend 
Keyes  controlled  my  action,  rather  than  regard  for  the 
public  welfare.     The  Commonwealth,  my  subsequent 


I04  BANQUET   TO   THE 

acquaintance  with  Colonel  Wilder  has  taught  me,  lost 
a  good  Councillor  ;  perhaps  his  defeat  tended  to  give 
to  the  agricultural  interests  a  rare  benefactor. 

Those  who  have  been  intimately  associated  wdth 
Colonel  Wilder  can  speak  far  more  intelligently  of 
his  great  services  in  the  department  of  Agriculture 
than  I  can;  but  I  can  speak,  and  take  pleasure  in 
speaking,  of  what  he  has  done  for  so  many  years  to 
promote  good  fellowship.  As  the  father  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Agricultural  Club,  at  the  head  of  whose 
weekly  gatherings  he  has  sat  for  so  many  years,  he 
has  brought  together  a  large  circle  of  educated  and 
practical  agriculturalists ;  and  while  the  discussions  at 
those  dinners  would  naturally  be  largely  connected 
with  agricultural  topics,  yet  to  my  mind,  and  I  doubt 
not  in  the  experience  of  those  gentlemen,  a  great, 
I  think  I  might  say  the  greatest,  benefit  of  the  asso- 
ciation has  been  in  the  personal  friendships  it  has 
cultivated. 

Comparing  Colonel  Wilder  s  achievements  in  the 
fields  to  which  he  has  devoted  his  life  w^ith  the  rec- 
ords of  those  who  entered  public  life  thirty-five  years 
ago,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  his  labors  in  behalf  of  the 
cultivators  of  farm,  garden,  and  orchard  have  far 
overshadowed  in  their  beneficent  results  all  that  has 
been  done  by  any  score  of  the  average  politicians  of 
that  day  ;  and  that  he  will  be  freshly  remembered  by 
his  associates  of  the  Agricultural  Club  long  after  the 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  105 

politicians  are  forgotten.  To  our  friend  himself  the 
memories  of  his  long  and  useful  life  must  cheer  his 
days  as  the  sun  goes  down  ;  for  as  Jeanie  Deans  so 
eloquently  says :  "  When  the  hour  of  death  comes, 
that  comes  to  high  and  low,  lang  and  late  may  it 
be  his !  then  it  isna  what  we  hae  dune  for  oursels, 
but  what  we  hae  dune  for  others,  that  we  think  on 
maist  pleasantly." 

And  thus,  in  view  of  the  beneficent  life  of  our 
venerable  friend,  and  of  the  serene  evening  so  well 
befitting  its  close,  we  have  the  right  to  address  to 
him  the  words  of  Emerson :  — 

Lowly  faithful,  banish  fear ; 

Right  onward  drive,  unharmed. 
The  port,  well  worth  the  cruise,  is  near, 

And  every  wave  is  charmed. 

Very  truly  yours, 

F.  W.  Bird. 

C.  H.  B.  Breck,  Esq. 


Letter  of  the  Hon.  diaries  Levi  Woodbury. 

Boston,  Sept.  19,  1883. 
Gentlemen,  —  It  would  give  me  the  greatest  pleas- 
ure to  join  in  the  festival  to  the  Hon.  Marshall  P. 
Wilder,  but  I  shall  leave  town  that  day  for  the  West, 
and  cannot  be  present. 

I  regret  this  personally,  because  I  should  like  to 
be  a  party  with  his  numerous  friends  in   testifying 


I06  BANQUET   TO   THE 

the  results  of  a  long  acquaintance  with  the  gentle- 
man who  will  be  your  guest.  It  would  be  more 
gratifying  to  his  modesty  that  these  things  should 
not  be  said  to  his  face,  but  to  you ;  and  behind  his 
back  I  feel  bold  enough  to  say  that  although  when 
I  first  knew  him  he  was  as  old  as  I  now  am,  and 
therefore  entitled  to  the  deference  due  to  seniority, 
yet  that  has  only  made  me  appreciate  with  keener 
obligation  the  sincerity  and  frankness  which,  equally 
with  the  scope  of  his  attainments  and  the  vigorous 
grasp  of  his  intellect,  have  made  his  friendship  a 
source  of  pleasure  and  an  exhaustless  mine  for 
instruction  and  wisdom. 

I  should  indeed  love  to  grasp  him  by  the  hand, 
look  into  his  kindly  beaming  eyes  on  this  occasion, 
and  gaze  on  his  stalwart  and  vigorous  figure ;  and  I 
should  not  now  write  as  much  were  it  not  that  his 
health  seems  to  have  been  drawn  from  a  fountain 
of  perpetual  youth ;  and  he  appears  so  likely  to  out- 
live me  that,  to  use  an  Irishism,  I  fear  I  shall  never 
live  to  make  a  funeral  oration  over  him  unless  I  do 
it  now.  Unlike  the  century-plant  which  blossoms 
only  once  in  a  hundred  years,  he  blossoms  for  a 
hundred  years  at  a  time  ;  and  what  then  ? 

Give  him  for  me  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  and 
believe  me 

Sincerely  yours,  and  his, 

Charles  Levi  Woodbury. 

Chas.  H.  B.  Bkeck,  Esq. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER. 


107 


Letter  of  the  Hon.  Frederic   IV.  Lincoln,  Ex-Mayor  of 
the  City  of  Boston. 

Boston,  Sept.  17,  1883. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  that  an  engagement  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  2  2d  inst.  will  prevent  my  acceptance 
of  the  courteous  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  com- 
plimentary dinner  to  the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder. 

His  long  and  valued  services  to  this  community 
certainly  deserve  recognition.  In  everything  that 
marks  the  citizen  and  the  man  his  career  has  been 
pre-eminent,  and  his  friends  do  well  to  unite  in  a 
social  and  in  somewhat  semi-official  way,  in  con- 
gratulations upon  the  happy  recurrence  of  the  eighty- 
fifth  anniversary  of  his  birth. 

Will  you  please  tender  to  Mr.  Wilder  my  personal 
congratulations,  and  believe  me  to  be 

Yours  very  truly, 

F.  W.  Lincoln. 

Chas.  H.  B.  Breck,  Esq, 


Letter  of  the  Rev.  James  H.  Means,  D.  D. 

Dorchester,  Sept.  13,  1883. 

My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  had  the  honor  of  receiving: 
your  invitation  to  the  celebration  of  the  eighty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  birth  of  my  parishioner  and  friend, 


I08  BANQUET   TO   THE 

Colonel  Wilder.  My  regard  for  him,  his  constant 
kindness  to  me,  and  my  admiration  of  a  life  so  pro- 
longed, yet  filled  up  with  activity  to  the  end,  combine 
to  make  me  desirous  of  joining  you  and  your  friends 
on  that  occasion ;  but  the  state  of  my  health  obliges 
me  to  be  absent. 

Please,  therefore,  accept  my  thanks  for  your  cour- 
tesy, and  believe  me. 

Cordially  yours, 

J.  H.  Means. 

The  Hon.  C.  H.  B.  Breck. 


Letter  of  Mr.  C.  M.  Atkinson,  a  professional  gardener. 

Brookline,  Sept.  22,  1883. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  that  I  cannot  be  one  of  your 
gathering,  to  offer  congratulations  to  our  noble  cap- 
tain. It  is  given  but  to  few  to  attain  to  fourscore- 
and-five  years,  and  those  not  of  labor  and  sorrow, 
but  of  joyful  usefulness.  It  is  given  but  to  few  to 
gather  around  such  a  noble  chieftain  and  offer  their 
heart-felt  congratulations ;  and  in  doing  so  we  do  not 
honor  him  as  much  as  we  do  ourselves. 

His  desire  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men  is  as 
broad  as  this  broad  continent.  The  natural  good 
and  the  moral  good  in  him  do  but  find  an  echo, 
thrilling  and  animating  each  according  to  the  meas- 
ure   of   good   vouchsafed    to    him.      A    life    so    well 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  109 

rounded,  so  full  of  usefulness  and  earnest  desire  to 
impart  beauty,  luxury,  and  joy  equally  to  the  hum- 
ble cot  and  the  proud  palace,  can  no  more  die  than 
beauty  or  music.  The  brightness  of  its  memory  may 
fade,  but  it  will  be  deathless. 

So  long  as  orchards  are  planted,  gardens  culti- 
vated, and  flowers  associated  with  all  our  joys  and 
all  our  sorrows,  so  long  will  the  name  of  Wilder 
live. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir, 

Ever  truly  yours, 

C.  M.  Atkinson. 


I  lO  BANQUET   TO   THE 


NAMES   OF   THE   GENTLEMEN 

WHO  PARTICIPATED  IN  THE  BANQUET  GIVEN  TO  THE 
HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER,    ON    THE   EIGHTY- 
FIFTH    ANNIVERSARY   OF    HIS    BIRTHDAY, 
SEPTEMBER   22,    1883. 


The  Hon.  IVIarshall  Pinckney  Wilder,  Ph.  D.,  the  honored 
guest  of  the  occasion. 

The  Hon.  Charles  H.  B.  Breck,  Vice-President  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Horticultural  Society,  and  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
of  Arrangements. 

The  Rev.  George  W.  Blagden,  D.D.,  Minister  Emeritus  of  the 
Old  South  Church,  Boston. 

His  Honor  Oliver  Ames,  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

His  Honor  Albert  Palmer,  Mayor  of  Boston. 

The  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Rice,  Ex-Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
and  Trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technolog}\ 

The  Hon.  Joshua  L.  Chamberlain,  late  President  of  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege, and  Ex-Governor  of  Maine. 

The  Hon.  Frederick  Smyth,  Vice-President  of  the  United  States 
Agricultural  Society,  and  Ex-Governor  of  New  Hampshire. 

The  Hon.  Leverett  Saltonstall,  Vice-President  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Agriculture. 

The  Hon.  Francis  B.  Hayes,  President  of  the  Massachusetts  Hor- 
ticultural Society. 

Pres.  J.  C.  Greenough,  President  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
College. 

General  Nathaniel  P.  B.ajstks,  United  States  Marshal  and  Ex- 
Governor  of  Massachusetts. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  Ill 

The  Rev.  Edward    N.   Packard,  Pastor  of  the    Second   Church, 

Dorchester. 
Major  Ben  :  Perley  Poore,  Past  Commander  of  the  Ancient  and 

Honorable  Artillery  Company,  and  Secretary  of  the  United 

States  Agricultural  Society. 
The  Hon.  John  Cummings,  President  of  the  Middlesex  Agricultural 

Society,    and   Treasurer   of  the    Massachusetts   Agricultural 

College. 
The  Hon.  Edward  S.  Tobey,  Postmaster  of  Boston. 
The  Hon.  George  P.  Sanger,  United  States  District  Attorney. 
The  Hon.  Francis  W.  Bird,  President  of  the  Bird  Club. 
The     Hon,     William     S.     Gardner,     Justice     of    the     Superior 

Court. 
The  Hon.  John  M.  Clark,  Sheriff  of  Suffolk. 
The   Hon.   George   C.    Richardson,  Vice-President  of  the   New 

England  Historic  Genealogical  Society. 
The  Rev.   Ediviund    F.    Slafter,   Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 

New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society. 
Benjamin  B.  Torrey,  Esq.,  Treasurer  of  the  New  England  Historic 

Genealogical  Society. 
The  Rev.  Increase  N.  Tarbox,  D.D.,  Historiographer  of  the  New 

England  Historic  Genealogical  Society. 
The  Hon.  Nathaniel  F.  Safford,  Director  in  the  New  England 

Historic  Genealogical  Society. 
David  Greene  Haskins,  Jr.,  Esq.,  Recording  Secretary  of  the  New 

England  Historic  Genealogical  Society. 
John  Ward  Dean,  Esq.,  Librarian  of  the  New  England  Historic 

Genealogical    Society,  and    Editor   of  the    Historical    and 

Genealogical  Register. 
The  Hon.  Francis  M.  Weld,  Vice-President  of  the  Massachusetts 

Agricultural  Club. 
Aaron  Davis  Weld,  Esq.,  Member  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the 

Massachusetts  Agricultural  Club. 


112  BANQUET   TO   THE 

Horatio  Hollis  Hunnewell,  Esq.,  Ex-Vice-president  of  the 
Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society  and  Member  of  the 
Massachusetts  Agricultural  Club. 

The  Hon.  Charles  L.  Flint,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Agri- 
cultural Club,  and  Ex-Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Board 
of  Agriculture. 

The  Hon.  John  E.  Russell,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Board 
of  Agriculture. 

Dr.  Joseph  Burnett,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
Club. 

John  Gardner,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
Club. 

The  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen,  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Webster  Historical  Society. 

Oakes  a.  Ames,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  New  England  Historic 
Genealogical  Society. 

The  Hon.  James  S.  Grinnell,  Trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Agri- 
cultural College. 

O.  B.  Hadwen,  Esq.,  Trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
College. 

Benjamin  P.  Ware,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Essex  Agricultural  So- 
ciety, and  a  Trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
College. 

The  Hon.  Daniel  Needham,  Secretary  of  the  New  England  Agri- 
cultural Society,  and  Trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricul- 
tural College. 

George  Noves,  Esq.,  Editor  of  the  Massachusetts  Ploughman,  and 
Trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College. 

M.  Denman  Ross,  Esq.,  Trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology. 

Aaron  H.  Bean,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Hamilton  Bank. 

S.  Stoddard  Blanchard,  Esq.,  Ex-President  of  the  Hamilton  Bank. 

Henry  G.  Denny,  Esq.,  Director  of  the  Hamilton  Bank. 


HON.    MARSHALL    P.    WILDER.  113 

Benjamin  F.  Stevens,  Esq.,  President  of  the  New  England  Mutual 
Life  Insurance  Company. 

Joseph  M.  Gibbens,  Secretary  of  the  New   England   Mutual  Life 
Insurance  Company. 

The  Hon.  Nath.vniel  J.  Bradlee,  President  of  the  Massachusetts 
Charitable  Mechanics'  Association. 

The  Hon.  Charles  R.  Tr.\in,  late  Attorney-General  of  Massachu- 
setts and  Trustee  of  the  Home  Savings  Bank. 

Samuel  Atherton,  Esq.,  Trustee  of  the  Home  Savings  Bank. 

WiLLUM  D.  CooLiDGE,  Esq.,  Past  Grand-Master  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Grand  Lodge  of  Freemasons. 

F.  Lyman  Winship,  of  the    Massachusetts  Grand  Lodge  of  Free- 
masons. 

William  G.  Underwood,  of  the  Massachusetts  Grand  Lodge   of 
Freemasons. 

Ezra  Farnsworth,  Esq.,  of  the  firm  of  Parker,  Wilder,  and  Com- 
pany. 

Benjamin  Phipps,  Esq.,  of  the  firm  of  Parker,  Wilder,  and  Com- 
pany. 

William  H.  Wilder,    Esq.,    of  the   firm   of  Parker,  Wilder,  and 
Company. 

The  Rev.  Luther  Farnham,  Librarian  of  the  General  Theological 
Library. 

Dr.  Henry  P.  Walcott,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Board  of 
Health. 

Dr.    MiLBREY    Green,    Ex- President    of    Massachusetts    Eclectic 
Medical  Society. 

Jonathan  French,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

Edward  Whitney,  Esq.,  Boston  Merchant. 

William  Durant,  Esq.,  of  the  Boston  Evening  Transcript. 

Elbridge  Torrey,  Esq.,  Boston  Merchant. 

Henry  C.  Brooks,  Esq.,  Boston  Merchant. 


114  BANQUET   TO   THE 

David  B.  Flint,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Charles  River  Barik. 

Eben  Snow,  Esq.,  Cashier  of  the  Charles  River  Bank. 

John  L.  Stevenson,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Boston  Club. 

Frederic  W.  G.  May,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Bostonian  Society. 

Albert  Morse,  Esq.,  Boston  Merchant. 

William  G.  Smith,  Esq.,  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society. 

Johnson  Clark,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural 
Society. 

Jesse  C.  Ivy,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural 
Society. 

William  Wallace,  Esq.,  Boston  Merchant. 

William  H.  Wilder,  Jr.,  Grandson  of  the  Hon.  Marshall  P. 
Wilder. 

Charles  M.  Hovey,  Esq.,  Ex-President  of  the  Massachusetts 
Horticultural  Society. 

Benjamin  G.  Smith,  Esq.,  Vice-President  of  the  Massachusetts  Hor- 
ticultural Society. 

Robert  Manning,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

George  W.  Fowle,  Esq.,  Treasurer  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

Phineas  Brown  Hovey,  Esq.,  Member  and  one  of  the  Founders  of 
the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society. 

F.  L.  Harris,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural 
Society. 

John  C.  Hovey,  Esq.,  Ex- Vice-president  of  the  Massachusetts  Hor- 
ticultural Society. 

Charles  N.  Brackett,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horti- 
cultural Society. 

Edward  L.  Beard,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

James  Comely,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural 
Society. 


HON.    MARSHALL   P.    WILDER.  115 

Aaron  Davis  Capen,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

George  Hill,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural 
Society. 

Charles  H.  Breck,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

Leander  Wetherell,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

Joseph  Tailby,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural 
Society. 

Hermann  Grundel,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

Charles  L.  Fowle,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticul- 
tural Society. 

Edward  C.  Sparhawk,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horti- 
cultural Society. 

C.  A.  Read,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural 
Society. 

William  T.  Hall,  Esq.,  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural 
Society. 

Hugh  P.  McNally,  Esq.,  of  the  Sunday  Courier. 

Henry  O'Meara,  Esq.,  of  the  Boston  Journal. 

Lyman  Weeks,  Esq.,  of  the  Boston  Post. 

S.  S.  Kingdon,  Esq.,  of  the  Daily  Advertiser. 

E.  A.  Grozier,  Esq.,  of  the  Boston  Herald. 

Edwin  L.  Haskell,  Esq.,  of  the  Boston  Star. 

William  A.  Ford,  Esq.,  of  the  Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 


MENU. 


Oysters  on  Shell. 

Soup. 

Green  Turtle.  Consomme. 

Fish. 

Chicken  Halibut,  HoUandaise  Sauce. 

Smelts,  k  la  Tartare. 
Cucumbers.  Tomatoes. 

Entrees. 

Lamb  Cutlets,  aux  Champignons. 

Chicken  Croquette,  k  la  Union. 

Releve. 

Roman  Punch. 

Game. 

English  Snipe.  Philadelphia  Squab. 

Sweets. 

Charlotte  Russe.  Omelette  Souffle. 

Wine  Jelly.  Frozen  Pudding. 

Fruits, 

Peaches.  Pears.  Delaware  Grapes. 

Hamburg  Grapes.  Concord  Grapes. 

Dry  Fruits. 

Ice  Cream.  Sherbet. 

Coffee. 


/^ 


ml 

^^ 


m, 


)fi 


